Optimizing utilization of a tablespace for exporting from a foreign database recovery environment

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods to optimize utilization of a tablespace for export from a native database recovery environment are described. The system receives a database from a source host, operating in a native database recovery environment, at a backup host operating in a foreign database recovery environment. The foreign database recovery environment utilizes foreign snapshot files and foreign incremental files for storing the database. The system receives a tablespace identifier that identifies a tablespace and a point-in-time that identifies file information for export from the backup host to the source host. The backup host initiates a job to generate script information; create directories; materialize the file information; utilize an auxiliary database to generate tablespace metadata information; and communicate the tablespace metadata information and the script information and the file information, via the directories, and over a network, to the source host, to enable the source host to recover the tablespace.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates to the technical field of database maintenanceand more particularly to optimizing utilization of a tablespace forexport from a native database recovery environment.

BACKGROUND

Real-time critical applications hosted by enterprise resource planning(ERP) systems, customer resource management (CRM) systems, and the likerequire the ability to instantly recover, test, and analyze their data.Any single database recovery system may not satisfy these requirements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a block diagram illustrating a system, according to anembodiment, to utilize a tablespace for export;

FIG. 1B is a block diagram illustrating a tablespace, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 1C is a block diagram illustrating a backup node, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 1D is a block diagram illustrating a source node, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 2A is a block diagram illustrating script information, according toan embodiment;

FIG. 2B is a block diagram illustrating a tablespace template, accordingto an embodiment;

FIG. 2C is a block diagram illustrating processing, according to anembodiment, to materialize file information;

FIG. 2D is a block diagram illustrating processing, according to anembodiment, to communicate via directories;

FIG. 2E is a block diagram illustrating file information, according toan embodiment;

FIG. 3A is a block diagram illustrating a method, according to anembodiment, for exporting a tablespace from a foreign database recoveryenvironment;

FIG. 3B is a block diagram illustrating a method, according to anembodiment, for exporting a tablespace to a native database recoveryenvironment;

FIG. 4A is a block diagram illustrating an electronic user interface,according to an embodiment;

FIG. 4B is a block diagram illustrating an electronic user interface,according to an embodiment;

FIG. 5A is a block diagram illustrating a system, according to anembodiment, to export a tablespace from a foreign database recoveryenvironment utilizing a cluster database;

FIG. 5B is a block diagram illustrating a method, according to anembodiment, to export a tablespace to a native database recoveryenvironment utilizing a cluster database;

FIG. 6A is a block diagram illustrating a system, according to anembodiment, for optimizing utilization of a tablespace for export fromthe foreign database recovery environment;

FIG. 6B is a block diagram illustrating processing, according to anembodiment, to communicate via the directories;

FIG. 6C is a block diagram illustrating a method, according to anembodiment, for optimizing utilization of a tablespace for export from aforeign database recovery environment;

FIG. 7A is a block diagram illustrating a networked computingenvironment, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 7B is a block diagram illustrating a server, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 7C is a block diagram illustrating a storage appliance, accordingto an embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a representative softwarearchitecture; and

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating components of a machine,according to some example embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This description is directed at three aspects of data communications forexporting of a tablespace. The first aspect includes utilizing atablespace for exporting from a foreign database recovery environment;the second aspect includes utilizing a tablespace for exporting to anative database recovery environment; and the third aspect includesoptimizing utilization of a tablespace for export from a foreigndatabase recovery environment.

Utilizing a Tablespace for Export from a Foreign Database RecoveryEnvironment

According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, a tablespace isutilized for exporting from a foreign database recovery environment. Abackup host receives a database from a source host operating in a nativedatabase recovery environment. The backup host operates in a foreigndatabase recovery environment and utilizes foreign snapshot files andforeign incremental files for restoring and recovering the database. Thebackup host receives export information including a tablespaceidentifier and a point-in-time. The tablespace identifier and thepoint-in-time are used to identify a tablespace including fileinformation for export from the backup host to the source host operatingin the native database recovery environment. The backup host initiates ajob responsive to receiving the export information. The job executes togenerate script information and file information based on the exportinformation. The script information includes one or more scriptsincluding logic for execution on the source host to recover thetablespace, at the point-in-time, in the database on the source host inthe native database recovery environment. In addition, the job executesto create one or more directories on the backup host based on the exportinformation and materialize the file information on the backup host. Thefile information includes snapshots of the database and incrementalchanges to the database. Finally, the job executes to communicate thefile information and the script information, via the directories, andover a network, to the source host. The directories and the scriptinformation enable the source host to restore and recover thetablespace, at the point-in-time, in the database on the source host inthe native database recovery environment.

Utilizing a Tablespace for Export to a Native Database RecoveryEnvironment

According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, a tablespace isutilized for exporting to a native database recovery environment. Abackup host receives a database from a source host operating in a nativedatabase recovery environment. The backup host operates in a foreigndatabase recovery environment and utilizes foreign snapshot files andforeign incremental files for restoring and recovering the database. Thesource host receives file information and script information, over anetwork, via directories. The source host operates in a native databaserecovery environment. The script information includes one or morescripts that execute, at the source host, to perform operationscomprising: mounting the directories, opening an auxiliary database,restoring a tablespace in the auxiliary database based on the nativesnapshot files and a tablespace identifier identifying the tablespace,recovering the tablespace in the auxiliary database based on the nativeincremental files, exporting the tablespace metadata information fromthe auxiliary database, importing the tablespace metadata to thedatabase, restoring the tablespace in the database based on the fileinformation, recovering the tablespace in the database based on the fileinformation, and unmounting the directories.

Utilizing a Tablespace for Export from a Foreign Database RecoveryEnvironment

According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, an optimizationin utilizing a tablespace for exporting to a native database recoveryenvironment is described. A backup host receives a database from asource host operating in a native database recovery environment. Thebackup host operates in a foreign database recovery environment andutilizes foreign snapshot files and foreign incremental files forrestoring and recovering the database. The backup host receives exportinformation including a tablespace identifier that identifies atablespace. The tablespace includes tablespace metadata information anda point-in-time that identifies file information for export from thebackup host to the source host operating in the native database recoveryenvironment. The backup host initiates a job responsive to receiving theexport information. The job executes to generate script informationbased on the export information. The script information includes one ormore scripts including logic for execution on the source host to importthe tablespace metadata information, at the point-in-time, to thedatabase on the source host. The job further executes to createdirectories, materialize the file information including native snapshotfiles and native incremental files, create an auxiliary database,restore the tablespace in the auxiliary database based on the fileinformation, recover the tablespace in the auxiliary database based onthe file information, export tablespace metadata information from theauxiliary database, and communicate the tablespace metadata information,the script information, and the file information, via the directories,and over a network, to the source host, to enable the source host torecover the tablespace in the database in the native database recoveryenvironment.

FIG. 1A is a block diagram illustrating a system 100, according to anembodiment, to utilize a tablespace for export. The system 100 includesa networked system 102 including a foreign database recovery environment103, a native database recovery environment 105, a client machine 110and a production system 116. The foreign database recovery environment103 includes a backup host 104 and the native database recoveryenvironment 105 includes a source host 106.

The backup host 104, the source host 106, and the client machine 110 maycommunicate over a network 112. The backup host 104 is utilized to backup a tablespace that is stored in a database 118 that, in turn, iscommunicatively coupled to the source host 106. In addition, a user mayutilize the client machine 110 to request the backup host 104 to utilizethe tablespace for export from the backup host 104 to the source host106 at a point-in-time that is selected by the user.

The source host 106 includes a source node 114 (e.g., server machine)(e.g., PRIMARY) that is communicatively coupled to the production system116 and a storage device 117 that stores the database 118. The storagedevice 117 further includes an auxiliary database 119 that may beutilized for exporting the tablespace, at a point-in-time, from theforeign database recovery environment 103 to the native databaserecovery environment 105. The database 118 is a standalone databasewithout replicates; however, in another embodiment, the database 118 mayinclude a cluster database embodied in replicates, as described later.The source host 106 receives data from applications that execute on theproduction system 116, stores the data in the database 118, andfacilitates management of the database 118. For example, the source host106 provides sophisticated database services for the applications thatexecute on the production system 116, including backup services for thedatabase 118. Further for example, responsive to detecting a corruptionin the database 118, a database crash, or the like, the source node 114may restore and recover the database 118 by utilizing files that arestored on the source node 114 or in the database 118. Accordingly, thesource node 114, in the native database recovery environment 105, mayrestore and recover the database 118 by storing files in the database118 that are utilized to restore and recover the production system 116.In addition, the source host 106 may utilize the backup servicesprovided by the foreign database recovery environment 103. For example,the source host 106 may utilize the foreign database recoveryenvironment 103 (e.g., backup host 104) to identify file informationbased on the tablespace, at the point-in-time, and export the fileinformation from the backup host 104 to the source host 106. Forexample, responsive to the backup host 104 receiving a request from theclient machine 110 to export the tablespace, at the point-in-time, thesource node 114 receives script information and file information, viadirectories, from the backup host 104. According to one example, thesource host 106 executes the scripts to restore and recover thetablespace, at the point-in-time, based on the file information.

The source host 106 includes a source node 114 (e.g., server machine)that is communicatively coupled to a storage device 117 that stores thedatabase 118 that, in turn, stores the tablespace. Responsive to thebackup host 104 receiving a request from the client machine 110 toutilize the tablespace for export to the source host 106, 1) the backuphost 104 generates script information (e.g., “S”) and file information(e.g., “F”); 2) the backup host 104 communicates the script information(e.g., “S”) and the file information (e.g., “F”), via directories 130,to the source host 106; 3) the source node 114 receives the scriptinformation (e.g., “S”) and the file information (e.g., “F”), viadirectories 130, from the backup host 104; 4) the source node 114executes the scripts on the source host 106 to create, restore, andrecover the tablespace, at the point-in-time, on the source host 106,based on the file information.

The backup host 104 includes a backup node 124 (e.g., server machine)that is communicatively coupled to a storage device 126 that stores adatabase 128. The backup host 104 is included in a foreign databaserecovery environment 103 which provides sophisticated database backupservices for the native database recovery environment 105. For example,the backup host 104 may receive the database 118, including thetablespace, from the source host 106 and store the database 118 in thedatabase 128. Further for example, the backup host 104 may receiveexport information from the client machine 110. The export informationmay include a request to utilize a tablespace for export of fileinformation from the backup host 104 to the source host 106. The exportinformation further includes a point-in-time that identifies a date-timefor restoring and recovering the tablespace on the source host 106 basedon the file information. According to one example, responsive toreceiving export information including a request to export thetablespace, a tablespace identifier that identifies the tablespace, anda point-in-time, the backup node 124 initiates a job that generatesscript information including scripts (e.g. “S”), creates directories130, materializes file information (e.g., “F”) from the database 128based on the tablespace, stores the script information and fileinformation in the directories 130, and communicates the scriptinformation and the file information, via the directories 130, over thenetwork 112, to the source node 114. The source node 114 receives thescript information, including scripts, and the file information from thebackup host 104 and utilizes the one or more scripts to process the fileinformation to restore and recover the tablespace to the point-in-timein the database 118 in the storage device 117 coupled to the source host106.

The networked system 102 may be embodied as a networked computingenvironment where the backup node 124, the source node 114, the clientmachine 110, and the production system 116 are interconnected throughone or more public and/or proprietary networks (e.g., Microsoft®provider of Azure Cloud Computing Platform & Services, Amazon providerof Amazon Web Services, and the like). According to another embodiment,the system 100 may be implemented as a single software platform.

The foreign database recovery environment 103 may be embodied as anetworked computing environment offered by Rubrik Inc., of Palo Alto,Calif. For example, the foreign database recovery environment 103 may beimplemented as a software platform that delivers backup, instantrecovery, archival, search, analytics, compliance, and copy datamanagement in one secure fabric across data centers and clouds asoffered by Rubrik Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif.

The native database recovery environment 105 may be embodied as anetworked computing environment offered by Oracle Inc., of Redwood City,Calif. For example, the native database recovery environment 105 may beimplemented as a software platform that develops and builds tools fordatabase development and systems of middle-tier software, enterpriseresource planning software, human capital management software, customerrelationship management software, and supply chain management software,as offered by Oracle Inc., of Redwood City, Calif.

FIG. 1B is a block diagram illustrating a tablespace 132, according toan embodiment. The tablespace 132 is an abstraction layer that may bemapped to physical files and logical database information. The physicalfiles may include file information 142 and storage information 144. Thelogical database information may include programmable information 146.

The programmable information 146 may be utilized to access logicaldatabase entities stored in the database 118. For example, theprogrammable information 146 may be utilized by the applications thatexecute on the production system 116. According to an embodiment, theprogrammable information 146 may include table information (e.g., tablenames) and object information (e.g., object names). The table names maybe utilized by the applications to identify one or more tables includedin the database 118. For example, a table name may be utilized foridentifying a shipping table in a wholesale distribution database. Inanother example, an object name may be utilized for reading shippinginformation (e.g., table information) from a row in the shipping tableand/or writing the shipping information (e.g., table information) to therow in the shipping table. The programmable information 146 may furtherinclude tablespace metadata information including metadata fordescribing, configuring, and controlling tablespace entities included inthe file information 142 (e.g., native snapshot files, nativeincremental files, native control file, and the like), tablespaceentities included in the programmable information 146 (e.g., tables,objects, and the like), and tablespace entities included in the storageinformation 144 included in the tablespace 132 (e.g., segments, extents,blocks, and the like).

The file information 142 includes files that are utilized to archive,restore and recover the tablespace 132. For example, the fileinformation 142 may include one or more files (e.g., native snapshotfiles) for restoring the tablespace 132 in the database 118 and one ormore files (e.g., native incremental files) for recovering the image ofthe tablespace 132 in the database 118. According to an embodiment, thetablespace 132 may include the shipping table. Accordingly, thetablespace 132 may include file information 142 for restoring the imageof the database 118 including the shipping table and for recovering theimage of database 118 including the shipping table.

The storage information 144 may be utilized to access the tablespace 132online. For example, the storage information 144 may include segments,extents, and database blocks that are utilized to access the tablespace132 online. According to an embodiment, a segment is a set of extentsallocated for a specific type of programmable information 146 (e.g.,shipping table). A segment may span across files included in the storageinformation 144. According to an embodiment, an extent is a number ofcontiguous data blocks allocated for storing a specific type ofprogrammable information 146 (e.g., shipping table). The extent may becontiguous data blocks that do not span across files. According to anembodiment, a data block is the smallest unit of data used by anoperating system to request data. According to an embodiment, anoperating system has a block size.

According to an embodiment, the file information 142 may be transformedto the storage information 144 and to the programmable information 146.According to an embodiment, the programmable information 146 may betransformed to the storage information 144 and to the file information142. According to an embodiment, the storage information 144 may betransformed to the file information 142 and to the programmableinformation 146.

According to an embodiment, the size of the database 118 may beincreased by adding a new tablespace 132 to the database 118. Accordingto an embodiment, the size of the database 118 may be increased byadding a file (included in the file information 142) to the tablespace132. According to an embodiment, the size of the tablespace 132 may beincreased by increasing the size of a file (included in the fileinformation 142) included in the tablespace 132.

According to an embodiment, the size of the database 118 may bedecreased by removing a tablespace 132 from the database 118. Accordingto an embodiment, the size of the database 118 may be decreased byremoving a file (included in the file information 142) from thetablespace 132. According to an embodiment, the size of the tablespace132 may be decreased by decreasing the size of a file (included in thefile information 142) included in the tablespace 132.

FIG. 1C is a block diagram illustrating the backup node 124, accordingto an embodiment. The backup node 124 may include a receiving module202, a job module 204, and directories 130. The receiving module 202 mayreceive input (e.g., user) in the form of export information including arequest to export the tablespace 132, a database name identifying thedatabase 118, a tablespace name identifying the tablespace 132, apoint-in-time (e.g., date-time) to recover the tablespace 132, and anidentifier identifying a source host 106. The job module 204 may beinitialized for execution responsive to receiving the exportinformation. The job module 204 executes to generate the scriptinformation 140, create the directories 130, materialize the fileinformation 142, store the script information 140 and the fileinformation 142 in the directories 130, and communicate the scriptinformation 140 and the file information 142, via the directories 130,to the source node 114. The script information 140 includes scripts thatexecute on the source host 106. The file information 142 includes filesthat are utilized to restore and recover the tablespace 132 in thedatabase 118 at the source host 106. According to the embodiment foroptimizing utilization of the tablespace 132 for export from the foreigndatabase recovery environment 103, the backup node 124 may furthergenerate the tablespace metadata information 148 and communicate thetablespace metadata information 148, via the directories 130, to thesource host 106.

FIG. 1D is a block diagram illustrating the source node 114, accordingto an embodiment. The source node 114 may include a backup agent 210, aremote connector agent 211, and the directories 130. The backup agent210 may be communicated to the source node 114 from the backup node 124.The backup agent 210 executes to communicate snapshots of images of thedatabase 118 and incremental updates to the image of the database 118 tothe backup node 124. The directories 130 are temporarily created by thebackup node 124 on the source node 114 to enable an export of thetablespace 132, in the form of file information 142, to the source node114. Each directory 130 includes script information 140 or fileinformation 142. The script information 140 includes scripts. The fileinformation 142 includes native snapshot file(s), native incrementalfile(s), and a native control file. The remote connector agent 211 maybe utilized to identify the scripts in the directories 130 and causeexecution of the one or more scripts to mount the directories 130, openan auxiliary database, restore the tablespace 132 in the auxiliarydatabase based on the native snapshot files, recover the tablespace 132in the auxiliary database 119 based on the native incremental files,export the tablespace metadata information 148 from the auxiliarydatabase 119, import the tablespace metadata information 148 to thedatabase 118, restore the tablespace 132 in the database 118 based onthe native snapshot files, recover the tablespace 132 in the database118 based on the native incremental files, and unmount the directories130.

According to the embodiment for optimizing utilization of the tablespace132 for export from the foreign database recovery environment 103, thesource node 114 may further generate tablespace metadata information 148and communicate the tablespace metadata information 148, via thedirectories 130, to the source host 106. Each directory 130 includes thescript information 140 or the file information 142 or the tablespacemetadata information 148. The script information 140 includes scripts.The file information 142 may include native snapshot file(s), nativeincremental file(s), and a native control file. The remote connectoragent 211 may be utilized to identify the one or more scripts in thedirectories 130 and cause execution of the one or more scripts to mountthe directories 130, import the tablespace metadata information 148 tothe database 118, restore the tablespace 132 in the database 118 basedon the native snapshot files, recover the tablespace 132 in the database118 based on the native incremental files, and unmount the directories130.

FIG. 2A is a block diagram illustrating script information 140,according to an embodiment. The script information 140 may includetemplate information 200 that may be utilized to create or generate ascript. The template information 200 includes a tablespace template 201and other templates 203. The tablespace template 201 may be selectedbased on input (e.g., export information). For example, the tablespacetemplate 201 may be selected responsive to receiving user input toutilize the tablespace 132 to export from the foreign database recoveryenvironment 103 to the source host 106.

FIG. 2B is a block diagram illustrating a tablespace template 201,according to an embodiment. The tablespace template 201 is utilized torestore and recover the tablespace 132 at a point-in-time in thedatabase 118 on the source host 106. The tablespace template 201 mayinclude plug-in value information 206, logic information 208, andenvironmental information 218. The plug-in value information 206 mayinclude plug-in values that are received as input (e.g., user) from theclient machine 110 and populated (e.g., pugged-in) into the tablespacetemplate 201. The logic information 208 includes logic for execution torestore and recover the tablespace 132 in the database 118 on the sourcehost 106, logic to perform other tasks, and logic to perform the like.The environmental information 218 may include configurable variablesthat are utilized by the logic information 208. For example, theenvironmental information 218 may include a service identifieridentifying a type of service being provided by the native databaserecovery environment 105, one or more network entity identifiers in theform of universal resource locators (URLs) for identifying networkentities, and the like. For example, the URLs may identify the locationof network entities including binaries, library routines, text files,and the like.

The plug-in value information 206 may include a point-in-time 212, asource host identifier 223 identifying the source host 106, a databasename 216 identifying the database 118, and a tablespace identifier 221identifying the tablespace 132 in the database 118. The point-in-time212 includes a date and a time (e.g., date-time) to recover thetablespace 132 in the database 118. For example, the user may requestthe tablespace 132 be recovered to the present time, two weeks prior tothe present time, two years prior to the present time, or some otherdate-time. The source host identifier 223 includes one or more networkaddresses (e.g., URL) that uniquely identifies the source node 114(e.g., PRIMARY) in the networked system 102. The database name 216identifies the database 118 including the tablespace 132 for export tothe source host 106. According to an embodiment, the logic information208 may comprise commands (e.g., Recovery Manager, “RMAN” commands byOracle) (e.g., SQL commands) that are created in a Jinja applicationenvironment that processes Jinja files to create layout files. Inaddition, the logic information 208 may comprise bash file script.

FIG. 2C is a block diagram illustrating processing 220, according to anembodiment, for materializing the file information 142. The processing220 to materialize the file information 142 may be performed in theforeign database recovery environment 103 on the backup node 124 by thejob module 204. The processing 220 to materialize the file information142 includes a materializing set 225. The materializing set 225 includesa foreign snapshot file 226 and foreign incremental files 228. Thematerializing set 225 is utilized to materialize 222 the fileinformation 142 in the foreign database recovery environment 103 that,in turn, is utilized to restore and recover the tablespace 132 in thedatabase 118 on the source host 106. The foreign snapshot file 226includes an image of the file information 142, and the foreignincremental files 228 include changes to the image of the fileinformation 142. For example, the changes may include transactions“TX1”-“TX N,” each being timestamped. The transactions are applied tothe image of the file information 142, in the foreign database recoveryenvironment 103, to recover the file information 142 to the identifieddate-time. In another example, the changes may include write operationsthat are applied to the image of the file information 142. The writeoperations may be timestamped. Other materializing sets 225 may includeother combinations of the foreign snapshot file 226 and the foreignincremental files 228. For example, other materializing sets 225 mayinclude the foreign snapshot file 226 and zero or more foreignincremental files 228.

The materializing sets 225 are stored in the database 128 in the foreigndatabase recovery environment 103 to back up the database 118 in thenative database recovery environment 105. For example, the materializingsets 225 may be stored in the database 128 responsive to the backup node124 receiving snapshots of the database 118 being communicated from thebackup agent 210, at the source node 114. Further for example, thematerializing sets 225 may be stored in the database 128 responsive tothe backup node 124 receiving updates to the database 118 beingcommunicated from the backup agent 210, at the source node 114.

The materializing set 225 may be selected, at the backup host 104 by thejob module 204, based on the point-in-time 212 that is received asexport information in the form of input (e.g., selected by a user). Forexample, responsive to receiving the point-in-time 212 Sunday—Dec. 29,2019 at 1:00 PM, the job module 204 may select the materializing set 225from multiple materializing sets based on the point-in-time 212.Further, the job module 204 may identify a set of transactions from thematerializing set 225 for application to the image in the foreignsnapshot file 226. For example, the job module 204 may identify the setof transactions for inclusion in the materializing set 225 before thetimestamp in transaction “TX5” because each of the transactions istimestamped before Sunday —Dec. 29, 2019 at 1:00 PM (e.g., thepoint-in-time 212). Conversely, the transactions “TX5”-“TX N” are notselected because the respective timestamps for each of the transactionsis after Sunday—Dec. 29, 2019 at 1:00 PM (e.g., the point-in-time 212).Accordingly, the point-in-time 212 may be utilized by the job module 204to identify the foreign snapshot file 226 and the foreign incrementalfiles 228 that are included in the materializing set 225. In addition,the point-in-time 212 may be utilized by the job module 204 to identifythe set of changes (e.g., transactions) in an incremental file 228 thatare included in the materializing set 225.

The materializing set 225 may be utilized by a foreign database recoveryprocess to materialize the file information 142 in the foreign databaserecovery environment 103. For example, the foreign database recoveryprocess may include the job module 204 materializing the fileinformation 142 in the foreign database recovery environment 103. Thefile information 142 may include the native snapshot file(s) 230, nativeincremental file(s) 232, and a native control file 234. The nativesnapshot files 230 include images of the database 118 and the nativeincremental files 232 include changes to the images of the database 118at or before the point-in-time. For example, the native incrementalfiles 232 may include transactions “TX A”-“TX I.” The transactions “TXA”-“TX I” may be timestamped. The transactions may be applied to theimages of the database 118 in the native snapshot file(s) 230. Thenative control file 234 may include control information including thedatabase name, names and locations of the associated files (e.g., nativesnapshot file(s) 230, native incremental file(s) 232), a timestampchronicling the creation of the database 118, a current sequence numberof the most recent change (e.g., transaction), and the like. Otherembodiments may not include the control information in the nativecontrol file 234. The file information 142 may include differentcombinations of the native snapshot file(s) 230, the native incrementalfile(s) 232, and the native control file(s) 234. For example, the fileinformation 142 may include the native snapshot file(s) 230 and thenative control file 234 with zero or more native incremental files 232.

FIG. 2D is a block diagram illustrating processing 240, according to anembodiment, to communicate via the directories 130. The one or moredirectories 130 may be created by the job module 204 on the backup node124 (e.g., PRIMARY) in the backup host 104 and on the source node 114(e.g., PRIMARY) in the source host 106. Each directory 130 on the backupnode 124 (e.g., PRIMARY) corresponds to a directory 130 on the sourcenode 114 (e.g., PRIMARY). Each directory 130 may be utilized as achannel for communicating the file information 142 or the scriptinformation 140 from the backup node 124 to the source node 114. Forexample, files that are located in a first directory on the backup node124 are communicated to the corresponding first directory on the sourcenode 114.

According to one embodiment, the number of directories 130 utilized maybe configured in multiples of four. For example, the number ofdirectories 130 shared between the backup node 124 (e.g., PRIMARY) andthe source node 114 (e.g., PRIMARY) may be four, eight, twelve, and soforth. The script information 140 may be communicated in a directory 130that is independent of the multiples of four. According to oneembodiment, the file information 142 and the script information 140 maybe communicated, via the directories 130, utilizing the Network FilesSystem (NFS) protocol. The NFS protocol is one of several distributedfile system standards for network-attached storage. NFS is a distributedfile system protocol that enables a user on a client computer to accessfiles over a computer network as local storage is accessed. NFS buildson the Open Network Computing Remote Procedure Call (ONC RPC) system.

FIG. 2E is a block diagram illustrating the file information 142,according to an embodiment. The file information 142 may include thenative snapshot file(s) 230, the native incremental file(s) 232, and thenative control file 234, as previously described.

FIG. 3A is a block diagram illustrating a method 300, according to anembodiment, for exporting the tablespace 132 from the foreign databaserecovery environment 103 and to the native database recovery environment105. On the left are operations performed by the client machine 110; inthe middle are operations performed in the foreign database recoveryenvironment 103 by the backup host 104; and on the right are operationsperformed in the native database recovery environment 105 by the sourcehost 106. The method 300 commences, at the source host 106, with thebackup agent 210 communicating the database 118 to the backup host 104,at operation 302. For example, the backup agent 210 may communicate animage of the database 118 to the backup host 104 or a change to theimage (e.g., transaction) to the database 118 to the backup host 104.

At operation 304, in the foreign database recovery environment 103, thebackup host 104 may receive the image of the database 118 or the changeto the image of the database 118 from the source host 106. For example,the receiving module 202, at the backup host 104, may receive and storethe image or the change to the image or other information (e.g.,metadata) in the database 128.

At operation 306, the client machine 110 receives export informationfrom a user and communicates the export information to the backup host104. For example, the export information may include a request to exportthe tablespace 132 identified with the tablespace identifier 221 in thedatabase 118 identified with the database name 216 (e.g., XYZ DATABASE),the point-in-time 212 (E.G., DECEMBER 23, 2019—9:35:17 PM), and thesource host 106 (e.g., SKYWALKER) identified by the source hostidentifier 223. The point-in-time 212 identifies the date-time of thetablespace 132 in the database 118 for export to the source host 106.For example, the current date-time identifies the current tablespace 132in the database 118 is to be exported to the source host 106. Furtherfor example, a date-time before the current date-time identifies anearlier version of the tablespace 132 in the database 118 for export tothe source host 106.

At operation 308, in the foreign database recovery environment 103, atthe backup host 104, the receiving module 202 receives the exportinformation. For example, the export information may be received overthe network at the backup host 104 requesting the identified tablespace132 in the database 118 be exported to the source host 106. The exportinformation may further include the point-in-time 212, the source hostidentifier 223 identifying the source host 106, the database name 216identifying the database 118, and the tablespace identifier 221identifying the tablespace 132 in the database 118 for export to thesource host 106, according to an embodiment.

At operation 310, the receiving module 202 initiates the job module 204based on the export information and responsive to receipt of the exportinformation. For example, the receiving module 202 may initiate one ormore jobs that execute serially or in parallel to export the tablespace132 in the database 118 that was identified with the tablespaceidentifier 221.

At operation 312, the job module 204 generates the script information140. For example, the job module 204 may select the tablespace template201 from the template information 200 based on the export information,populate the plug-in value information 206 in the tablespace template201 based on the export information, and populate the environmentalinformation 218 based on the export information. The script information140 may include one or more scripts including the logic information 208comprising commands that execute on the source node 114 (e.g., PRIMARY)in the source host 106 to export the tablespace 132 in the database 118to the source host 106.

At operation 314, the job module 204 creates directories 130 on thebackup host 104 and on the source host 106. For example, the job module204 may create the directories 130 as illustrated and described in FIG.2D. Returning to FIG. 3A, the number of directories (e.g., 4, 8, 12,etc.) created on the backup host 104 and the source host 106 may beinherited from configuration information on the source host 106,according to an embodiment. If, for example, the source host 106includes configuration information that is configured to utilize eightdirectories, then the job module 204 creates eight directories on thebackup host 104 and the source host 106.

At operation 316, the job module 204 materializes the file information142. For example, at the backup node 124, the job module 204 may selecta materializing set 225 based on the export information (e.g.,point-in-time 212, tablespace 132, source host 106, and the like) andmaterialize the file information 142, as illustrated and described inFIG. 2C.

Returning to FIG. 3A, at operation 318, the job module 204 communicatesthe file information 142 and the script information 140, via thedirectories 130, over the network 112 to the source host 106. Forexample, each of the directories 130 may be utilized as a channel forcommunicating the file information 142 and the script information 140 tothe source host 106. According to an embodiment, the communication ofthe file information 142 may be load balanced, via the directories 130,based on the size of the files. According to an embodiment, thedirectories 130 may be Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) channels whereeach channel represents one stream of data and corresponds to one serversession. According to this embodiment, each channel (directory 130) isutilized to establish a connection from the backup node 124 (e.g.,client) to the database 118 instance on the source host 106 (e.g.,PRIMARY) by starting a server session on the database 118 instance onthe source node 114 (e.g., PRIMARY). According to an embodiment, thenetwork file system protocol (NFS) may be utilized to communicate thefile information 142.

At operation 320, the tablespace 132 in the the database 118 is exportedto the source host 106 in the native database recovery environment 105.For example, the source node 114 (e.g., PRIMARY) in the source host 106may receive the file information 142 and the script information 140, viathe directories 130. The script information 140 includes scripts thatare executed, on the source node 114, to restore and recover theidentified tablespace 132 in the database 118 on the source node 114.The operation 320 is further described in association with FIG. 3B.

According to another embodiment, the operations included in the method300 may be performed in the native database recovery environment 105 bythe primary source node in a clustered database. For example, the sourcenode 114 may communicate the file information 142 and the scriptinformation 140, via the directories 130, to each of the additionalsource nodes in the clustered database to export the tablespace 132 tothe additional source nodes. This embodiment is further described inassociation with FIG. 5A.

FIG. 3B is a block diagram illustrating a method 330, according to anembodiment, for utilizing the tablespace 132 to export to the nativedatabase recovery environment 105. The operations may be performed inthe native database recovery environment 105 on the source host 106. Theoperations 332-364 are described with reference to the source host 106.

At operation 332, the file information 142 and the script information140 are received, via the directories 130, at the source host 106. Forexample, the source node 114 (e.g., PRIMARY) may receive the fileinformation 142, via one or more directories 130, as previouslydescribed in association with FIG. 2E. In addition, the source node 114(e.g., PRIMARY) may receive the script information 140 via a directory130 including a first directory, as previously described in associationwith FIG. 2D. Returning to FIG. 3, the file information 142 may includethe native snapshot file(s) 230, zero or more native incremental file(s)232, and the native control file 234. The script information 140 mayinclude one or more scripts that are executed on the source node 114 toexport the identified tablespace 132 in the database 118 to the sourcenode 114, as described below in the operations 334-364.

At operation 334, at the source host 106 in the native database recoveryenvironment 105, one or more scripts may execute to mount thedirectories 130. For example, the remote connector agent 211 on thesource node 120 (e.g., PRIMARY) may identify a script and cause thescript to execute to mount the directories 130 to the directorystructure on the source node 114.

At operation 336, at the source host 106 in the native database recoveryenvironment 105, one or more scripts may execute to open the auxiliarydatabase 119. For example, the script may execute the SQL “STARTUP”command to mount and open the auxiliary database 119.

At operation 338, at the source host 106 in the native database recoveryenvironment 105, one or more scripts may execute to restore theidentified tablespace 132 in the database 118. For example, the one ormore scripts may utilize one or more native snashot file(s) 230 and oneor more native control file(s) 234 in the file information 142 torestore the image of the identified tablespace 132 auxiliary database119.

At operation 340, at the source host 106 in the native database recoveryenvironment 105, one or more scripts may execute to recover theidentified tablespace 132 in the auxiliary database 119. For example,the one or more scripts may utilize the one or more native incrementalfile(s) in the file information 142 to recover the identified tablespace132 in the auxiliary database 119 by applying the incremental changes tothe image of the identified tablespace 132 in the auxiliary database119. According to an embodment, the incremental changes may includetransactions or write operations that change the image of the identifiedtablespace 132 in the auxiliary database 119.

At operation 360, at the source host 106 in the native database recoveryenvironment 105, one or more scripts may execute to export thetablespace metadata information 148 for the the identified tablespace132 from the auxiliary database 119. For example, the one or morescripts may utilize one or more modules in the native database recoveryenvironment 105 to export the tablespace metadata information 148 forthe the identified tablespace 132 from the auxiliary database 119.

At operation 362, at the source host 106 in the native database recoveryenvironment 105, one or more scripts may execute to update theidentified tablespace 132 in the database 118. For example, theoperation 362 may include the operations 366, 368, and 370 to to updatethe identified tablespace 132 in the database 118.

At operation 366, at the source host 106 in the native database recoveryenvironment 105, one or more scripts may execute to import thetablespace metadata information 148 for the the identified tablespace132 to the database 118. For example, the one or more scripts mayutilize one or more modules in the native database recovery environment105 to import the tablespace metadata information 148 for the theidentified tablespace 132 to the the database 118.

At operation 368, at the source host 106 in the native database recoveryenvironment 105, one or more scripts may execute to restore theidentified tablespace 132 in the database 118. For example, the one ormore scripts may utilize one or more modules in the native databaserecovery environment 105 to restore the image of the the identifiedtablespace 132 in the the database 118. According to this embodiment,one or more modules in the native database recovery environment 105 mayutilize the native snapshot files 230, received from the backup host 104via the directories 130, to restore the image of the the identifiedtablespace 132 in the database 118.

At operation 370, at the source host 106 in the native database recoveryenvironment 105, one or more scripts may execute to recover theidentified tablespace 132 in the database 118. For example, the one ormore scripts may utilize one or more modules in the native databaserecovery environment 105 to recover the image of the identifiedtablespace 132 in the database 118. According to this embodiment, theone or more modules in the native database recovery environment 105 mayutilize the native incremental files 232, received from the backup host104 via the directories 130, to recover the image of the identifiedtablespace 132 in the database 118.

At operation 362, at the source host 106 in the native database recoveryenvironment 105, one or more scripts may execute to unmount thedirectories 130. For example, the one or more scripts may unmount thedirectiores 130 to make the directores 130 inaccessible and to detachthe directories 130 from the directory structure on the source node 114.

According to another embodiment, the operations included in the method330 may be performed in the native database recovery environment 105 byeach of the additional source nodes in a clustered database. Forexample, each of the additional source nodes may receive the fileinformation 142 and the script information 140, via the directories 130,from the source node 114 and process the file information 142 and thescript information 140 to export the tablespace 132 to the additionalsource node. This embodiment is further described in association withFIG. 5B.

FIG. 4A is a block diagram illustrating an electronic user interface400, according to an embodiment, for initializing export information.The electronic user interface 400 may initialize the export informationincluding a request to identify a tablespace 132 in a database 118 basedon point-in-time 212 and export the tablespace 132 to a source host 106.The user interface 400 is illustrated in the day view 402. Other userinterfaces may present a year view for selecting a month in a specifiedyear and/or a month view for selecting a day in a specified month. Theelectronic user interface 400 presents the date, “JANUARY 21, 2020,” atimeline 404 including dots each representing a foreign snapshot file226 including the image of the database 118 (e.g., 12:00 AM, 6:00 AM,12:00 PM, 6:00 PM) and zero or more foreign incremental files 228including changes to the image of the database 118, an input box 406 forreceiving the point-in-time 212 for identifying a date-time, aspreviously described, the database name 216 identifying the database118, and rows of tablespace identifiers 221 each identifying atablespace 132 in the database 118.

The electronic user interface 400 may initialize the export informationresponsive to receiving a selection identifying a dot corresponding to apoint-in-time 212. For example, responsive to receiving a selection of adot corresponding to the point-in-time 212 of Jan. 21, 2020, 5:19:35 AM,the export information may be initialized with the point-in-time 212 ofJan. 21, 2020, 5:19:35 AM. In addition, responsive to receiving aselection identifying the tablespace identifier 221 “TABLESPACE_2,” theexport information may be initialized with the database name 216 (e.g.,“XYZ DATABASE 118”) identifying the corresponding database 118 and thecorresponding tablespace 132.

FIG. 4B is a block diagram illustrating an electronic user interface420, according to an embodiment, for receiving export information. Theuser interface 420 corresponds to the user interface 400 in FIG. 4A;accordingly, the same or similar references have been used to indicatethe same or similar features unless otherwise indicated. The userinterface 420 further includes a recover button 408 for receiving theexport information. For example, responsive to receiving a selectionthat selects the recover button 408, the job module 204 receives theexport information including a request to export the “TABLESPACE_2”tablespace 132 to the XYZ DATABASE 118 at the source host 106 at thepoint-in-time 212 of Jan. 21, 2020, 5:19:35 AM.

FIG. 5A is a block diagram illustrating a system 500, according to anembodiment, to export a cluster database. The system 500 corresponds tothe system 100 in FIG. 1A; accordingly, the same or similar referenceshave been used to indicate the same or similar features unless otherwiseindicated. The backup host 104 includes three backup nodes including abackup node 124, a backup node 504, and a backup node 506. Each of thebackup nodes 124, 504, and 506 is communicatively coupled to a storagedevice that stores the database 128.

Accordingly, backup nodes 124, 504, and 506 are communicatively coupledto replicates of the database 128. The backup node 124 operates as theprimary for the backup nodes 504, 506, and additional backup nodes.

The source host 106 includes three nodes including source nodes 114,510, and 512. Each of the source nodes 114, 510, and 512 iscommunicatively coupled to a storage device that stores the database 118and the auxiliary database 119. Accordingly, the source nodes 114, 510,and 512 are communicatively coupled to replicates of the database 118.The source node 114 operates as the primary for the source nodes 510,512, and additional source nodes.

The system 500 operates as the system 100 in exporting the tablespace132 that was identified from the backup node 124 (e.g., PRIMARY) to thesource node 114 (e.g., PRIMARY). For example, the file information 142and the script information 140 are communicated from the backup node 124to the source node 114, via the directories 130, in substantially thesame manner. The system 500 further includes the source node 114 (e.g.,PRIMARY) restoring and recovering the tablespace 132 on each of theadditional source nodes including the source node 510 and the sourcenode 512. According to one embodiment, the backup host 104 may beembodied as a Rubrik host with a Cassandra clustered database and thesource host 106 may be embodied as an Oracle host with a RealApplication clustered (RAC) database.

FIG. 5B is a block diagram illustrating a method 550, according to anembodiment, to export a tablespace to a native database recoveryenvironment utilizing a cluster database. The method 550 commences atoperation 552, at the backup host 104, with the backup node 124 (e.g.,PRIMARY) exporting the tablespace 132 from the foreign database recoveryenvironment 103 to the native database recovery environment 105. Forexample, the tablespace 132 may have been identified utilizing theelectronic user interfaces 400 illustrated in FIG. 4A and the electronicuser interfaces 420 illustrated in FIG. 4B and exported from the backupnode 124 (e.g., PRIMARY), in the foreign database recovery environment103, to the source node 114 (e.g., PRIMARY), in the native databaserecovery environment 105, as described in the method 300 and illustratedin FIG. 3A.

At operation 554, the source node 114 communicates the file information142 and the script information 140, via the directories 130, to each ofthe additional source nodes. For example, the source node 114 maycommunicate the file information 142 and the script information 140 tothe source node 510 and the source node 512 by creating and utilizingthe directories 130 as illustrated in FIG. 2D.

At operation 556, each of the additional source nodes receives the fileinformation 142 and the script information 140 from the source node thatis primary and processes the file information 142 and the scriptinformation 140 to export the tablespace 132 to the additional sourcenodes. For example, the source node 510 and the source node 512 receivethe file information 142 and the script information 140 from the sourcenode 114 (e.g., PRIMARY) and the source node 510, and the source node512 processes the file information 142 and the script information 140 toexport the tablespace 132 into the native database recovery environment105, at the source node 510 and the source node 512. According to anembodiment, the source node 510 and the source node 512 receive andprocess the file information 142 and the script information 140 toexport the tablespace 132 to the native database recovery environment105, as described in method 330, illustrated in FIG. 3B.

FIG. 6A is a block diagram illustrating a system 600, according to anembodiment, for optimizing utilization of a tablespace for export fromthe foreign database recovery environment 103. The system 600corresponds to the system 100 in FIG. 1A; accordingly, the same orsimilar references have been used to indicate the same or similarfeatures unless otherwise indicated. The system 600 differs from thesystem 100 because the tablespace metadata information 148 is generatedat the backup host 104 rather than the source host 106. According tothis embodiment, an optimization is realized at the source host 106because the source host 106 no longer utilizes processing or storageresources to generate the tablespace metadata information 148.Accordingly, the backup node 124 (e.g., PRIMARY) creates the auxiliarydatabase 119, restores the tablespace 132 in the auxiliary database 119based on the file information 142, recovers the tablespace 132 in theauxiliary database 119 based on the file information 142, and generatesthe tablespace metadata information 148 by processing the tablespace 132in the auxiliary database 119. In addition, the backup node 124 mayutilize the directories 130 to communicate the tablespace metadatainformation 148 to the source node 114 (e.g., PRIMARY).

FIG. 6B is a block diagram illustrating processing 640, according to anembodiment, to communicate via the directories 130. The processing 640corresponds to the processing 240 in FIG. 2D; accordingly, the same orsimilar references have been used to indicate the same or similarfeatures unless otherwise indicated. The processing 640 differs from theprocessing 240 because the backup host 104 utilizes the directories 130to communicate the tablespace metadata information 148 to the sourcehost 106. For example, the backup node (e.g., PRIMARY) may communicatethe tablespace metadata information 148, via the directories 130, to thesource node 120 (e.g., PRIMARY). In addition, the backup node (e.g.,PRIMARY) also communicates the file information 142 and the scriptinformation 140, via the directories 130, to the source node 120 (e.g.,PRIMARY) as previously described and illustrated in FIG. 6B.

FIG. 6C is a block diagram illustrating a method 660, according to anembodiment, for optimizing utilization of a tablespace for export from aforeign database recovery environment. The method 660 corresponds to themethod 300 in FIG. 3A; accordingly, the same or similar references havebeen used to indicate the same or similar features unless otherwiseindicated. The method 660 includes the operations 302-316, as previouslydescribed in in FIG. 3A.

At operation 662, the job module 204 at the backup host 104 creates anauxiliary database 119 and utilizes the auxiliary database 119 togenerate the tablespace metadata information 148 associated with thetablespace 132 that was selected. The operation 662 includes theoperations 338, 340, and 360, as previously described; however, the jobmodule 204, rather than the source host 106, executes these operations.For example, the job module 204 may open/create the auxiliary database119, restore the tablespace 132 in the auxiliary database 119 byutilizing the native snapshot files 230 included in the file information142 that was materialized, recover the tablespace 132 in the auxiliarydatabase 119 by utilizing the native snapshot files 230 included in thefile information 142 that was materialized, and export the tablespacemetadata information 148 from the auxiliary database 119. According toan embodiment, the job module 204 may invoke one or more utility modulesthat execute in the native database recovery environment 105 toopen/create the auxiliary database 119, restore the tablespace 132,recover the tablespace 132, and export the tablespace metadatainformation 148 from the auxiliary database 119.

At operation 664, the job module 204 communicates the file information142 and the script information 140 and the tablespace metadatainformation 148, via the directories 130, over the network 112 to thesource host 106. For example, each of the directories 130 may beutilized as a channel for communicating the file information 142 and thescript information 140 and the tablespace metadata information 148 tothe source host 106. According to an embodiment, the communication ofthe file information 142 may be load balanced, via the directories 130,based on the size of the files. According to an embodiment, thedirectories 130 may be Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) channels whereeach channel represents one stream of data and corresponds to one serversession. According to this embodiment, each channel (directory 130) isutilized to establish a connection from the backup node 124 (e.g.,client) to the database 118 instance on the source host 106 (e.g.,PRIMARY) by starting a server session on the database 118 instance onthe source node 114 (e.g., PRIMARY). According to an embodiment, thenetwork file system protocol (NFS) may be utilized to communicate thefile information 142.

At operation 667, the tablespace 132 in the the database 118 is exportedto the source host 106 in the native database recovery environment 105.For example, the source node 114 (e.g., PRIMARY) in the source host 106may receive the file information 142 and the script information 140 andthe tablespace metadata information 148, via the directories 130. Thescript information 140 includes one or more scripts that are executed,on the source node 114, to import the tablespace metadata information148 into the database 118, restore the tablespace 132 in the database118 by utilizing the native snapshot files 230 included in the fileinformation 142 received via the directories 130, recover the tablespace132 in the database 118 by utilizing the native snapshot files 230included in the file information 142 that was received via thedirectories 130.

According to an embodiment, the one or more scripts may invoke one ormore utility modules that execute in the native database recoveryenvironment 105 to open/create the auxiliary database 119, restore thetablespace 132, recover the tablespace 132, and export the tablespacemetadata information 148 from the auxiliary database 119.

According to another embodiment, the operations included in theoperation 667 may be performed in the native database recoveryenvironment 105 by the primary source node in a clustered database. Forexample, the source node 114 may communicate the file information 142and the script information 140 and the tablespace metadata information148, via the directories 130, to each of the additional source nodes inthe clustered database to export the tablespace 132 to the additionalsource nodes.

FIG. 7A depicts one embodiment of a networked computing environment 1100in which the disclosed technology may be practiced. As depicted, thenetworked computing environment 1100 includes a data center 1150, astorage appliance 1140, and a computing device 1154 in communicationwith each other via one or more networks 1180. The networked computingenvironment 1100 may include a plurality of computing devicesinterconnected through one or more networks 1180. The one or morenetworks 1180 may allow computing devices and/or storage devices toconnect to and communicate with other computing devices and/or otherstorage devices. In some cases, the networked computing environment 1100may include other computing devices and/or other storage devices notshown. The other computing devices may include, for example, a mobilecomputing device, a non-mobile computing device, a server, awork-station, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a desktop computer,or an information processing system. The other storage devices mayinclude, for example, a storage area network storage device, anetworked-attached storage device, a hard disk drive, a solid-statedrive, or a data storage system.

The data center 1150 may include one or more servers, such as server1160, in communication with one or more storage devices, such as storagedevice 1156. The one or more servers 1160 may also be in communicationwith one or more storage appliances, such as storage appliance 1170. Theserver 1160, storage device 1156, and storage appliance 1170 may be incommunication with each other via a networking fabric connecting serversand data storage units within the data center 1150 to each other. Thestorage appliance 1170 may include a data management system for backingup virtual machines and/or files within a virtualized infrastructure.The server 1160 may be used to create and manage one or more virtualmachines associated with a virtualized infrastructure.

The one or more virtual machines may run various applications, such as adatabase application or a web server. The storage device 1156 mayinclude one or more hardware storage devices for storing data, such as ahard disk drive (HDD), a magnetic tape drive, a solid-state drive (SSD),a storage area network (SAN) storage device, or a networked-attachedstorage (NAS) device. In some cases, a data center, such as data center1150, may include thousands of servers and/or data storage devices incommunication with each other. The data storage devices may comprise atiered data storage infrastructure (or a portion of a tiered datastorage infrastructure). The tiered data storage infrastructure mayallow for the movement of data across different tiers of a data storageinfrastructure between higher-cost, higher-performance storage devices(e.g., solid-state drives and hard disk drives) and relativelylower-cost, lower-performance storage devices (e.g., magnetic tapedrives).

The one or more networks 1180 may include a secure network such as anenterprise private network, an unsecure network such as a wireless opennetwork, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), and theInternet. The one or more networks 1180 may include a cellular network,a mobile network, a wireless network, or a wired network. Each networkof the one or more networks 1180 may include hubs, bridges, routers,switches, and wired transmission media such as a direct-wiredconnection. The one or more networks 1180 may include an extranet orother private network for securely sharing information or providingcontrolled access to applications or files.

A server, such as server 1160, may allow a client to downloadinformation or files (e.g., executable, text, application, audio, image,or video files) from the server or to perform a search query related toparticular information stored on the server. In some cases, a server mayact as an application server or a file server. In general, a server mayrefer to a hardware device that acts as the host in a client-serverrelationship or a software process that shares a resource with orperforms work for one or more clients.

One embodiment of server 1160 includes a network interface 1165,processor 1166, memory 1167, disk 1168, and virtualization manager 1169all in communication with each other. Network interface 1165 allowsserver 1160 to connect to one or more networks 1180. Network interface1165 may include a wireless network interface and/or a wired networkinterface. Processor 1166 allows server 1160 to executecomputer-readable instructions stored in memory 1167 in order to performprocesses described herein. Processor 1166 may include one or moreprocessing units, such as one or more CPUs and/or one or more GPUs.

Memory 1167 may comprise one or more types of memory (e.g., RAM, SRAM,DRAM, ROM, EEPROM, Flash, etc.). Disk 1168 may include a hard disk driveand/or a solid-state drive. Memory 1167 and disk 1168 may comprisehardware storage devices.

The virtualization manager 1169 may manage a virtualized infrastructureand perform management operations associated with the virtualizedinfrastructure. The virtualization manager 1169 may manage theprovisioning of virtual machines running within the virtualizedinfrastructure and provide an interface to computing devices interactingwith the virtualized infrastructure. In one example, the virtualizationmanager 1169 may set a virtual machine into a frozen state in responseto a snapshot request made via an application programming interface(API) by a storage appliance, such as storage appliance 1170. Settingthe virtual machine into a frozen state may allow a point-in-timesnapshot of the virtual machine to be stored or transferred. In oneexample, updates made to a virtual machine that has been set into afrozen state may be written to a separate file (e.g., an update file)while the virtual machine may be set into a read-only state to preventmodifications to the virtual disk file while the virtual machine is inthe frozen state.

The virtualization manager 1169 may then transfer data associated withthe virtual machine (e.g., an image of the virtual machine or a portionof the image of the virtual disk file associated with the state of thevirtual disk at the point-in-time from which it is frozen) to a storageappliance in response to a request made by the storage appliance. Afterthe data associated with the point-in-time snapshot of the virtualmachine has been transferred to the storage appliance 1170, the virtualmachine may be released from the frozen state (i.e., unfrozen) and theupdates made to the virtual machine and stored in the separate file maybe merged into the virtual disk file. The virtualization manager 1169may perform various virtual machine-related tasks, such as cloningvirtual machines, creating new virtual machines, monitoring the state ofvirtual machines, moving virtual machines between physical hosts forload balancing purposes, and facilitating backups of virtual machines.

One embodiment of storage appliance 1170 includes a network interface1175, processor 1176, memory 1177, and disk 1178 all in communicationwith each other. Network interface 1175 allows storage appliance 1170 toconnect to one or more networks 1180. Network interface 1175 may includea wireless network interface and/or a wired network interface. Processor1176 allows storage appliance 1170 to execute instructions stored inmemory 1177 in order to perform processes described herein. Processor1176 may include one or more processing units, such as one or more CPUsand/or one or more GPUs. Memory 1177 may comprise one or more types ofmemory (e.g., RAM, SRAM, DRAM, ROM, EEPROM, NOR Flash, NAND Flash,etc.). Disk 1178 may include a hard disk drive and/or a solid-statedrive. Memory 1177 and disk 1178 may comprise hardware storage devices.

In one embodiment, the storage appliance 1170 may include four machines.Each of the four machines may include a multi-core CPU, 64 GB of RAM, a400 GB SSD, three 4 TB HDDs, and a network interface controller. In thiscase, the four machines may be in communication with the one or morenetworks 1180 via the four network interface controllers. The fourmachines may comprise four nodes of a server cluster. The server clustermay comprise a set of physical machines that are connected together viaa network. The server cluster may be used for storing data associatedwith a plurality of virtual machines, such as backup data associatedwith different point-in-time versions of a thousand virtual machines.The networked computing environment 1100 may provide a cloud computingenvironment for one or more computing devices. Cloud computing may referto Internet-based computing, wherein shared resources, software, and/orinformation may be provided to one or more computing devices on-demandvia the Internet. The networked computing environment 1100 may comprisea cloud computing environment providing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) orInfrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) services. SaaS may refer to asoftware distribution model in which applications are hosted by aservice provider and made available to end users over the Internet. Inone embodiment, the networked computing environment 1100 may include avirtualized infrastructure that provides software, data processing,and/or data storage services to end users accessing the services via thenetworked computing environment 1100. In one example, networkedcomputing environment 1100 may provide cloud-based work productivity orbusiness-related applications to a computing device, such as computingdevice 1154. The storage appliance 1140 may comprise a cloud-based datamanagement system for backing up virtual machines and/or files within avirtualized infrastructure, such as virtual machines running on server1160 or files stored on server 1160.

In some cases, networked computing environment 1100 may provide remoteaccess to secure applications and files stored within data center 1150from a remote computing device, such as computing device 1154. The datacenter 1150 may use an access control application to manage remoteaccess to protected resources, such as protected applications,databases, or files located within the data center 1150. To facilitateremote access to secure applications and files, a secure networkconnection may be established using a virtual private network (VPN). AVPN connection may allow a remote computing device, such as computingdevice 1154, to securely access data from a private network (e.g., froma company file server or mail server) using an unsecure public networkor the Internet. The VPN connection may require client-side software(e.g., running on the remote computing device) to establish and maintainthe VPN connection. The VPN client software may provide data encryptionand encapsulation prior to the transmission of secure private networktraffic through the Internet.

In some embodiments, the storage appliance 1170 may manage theextraction and storage of virtual machine snapshots associated withdifferent point-in-time versions of one or more virtual machines runningwithin the data center 1150. A snapshot of a virtual machine maycorrespond with a state of the virtual machine at a particularpoint-in-time. In response to a restore command from the server 1160,the storage appliance 1170 may restore a point-in-time version of avirtual machine or restore point-in-time versions of one or more fileslocated on the virtual machine and transmit the restored data to theserver 1160. In response to a mount command from the server 1160, thestorage appliance 1170 may allow a point-in-time version of a virtualmachine to be mounted and allow the server 1160 to read and/or modifydata associated with the point-in-time version of the virtual machine.To improve storage density, the storage appliance 1170 may deduplicateand compress data associated with different versions of a virtualmachine and/or deduplicate and compress data associated with differentvirtual machines. To improve system performance, the storage appliance1170 may first store virtual machine snapshots received from avirtualized environment in a cache, such as a flash-based cache. Thecache may also store popular data or frequently accessed data (e.g.,based on a history of virtual machine restorations, incremental filesassociated with commonly restored virtual machine versions) and currentday incremental files or incremental files corresponding with snapshotscaptured within the past 24 hours.

An incremental file may comprise a forward incremental file or a reverseincremental file. A forward incremental file may include a set of datarepresenting changes that have occurred since an earlier point-in-timesnapshot of a virtual machine. To generate a snapshot of the virtualmachine corresponding with a forward incremental file, the forwardincremental file may be combined with an earlier point-in-time snapshotof the virtual machine (e.g., the forward incremental file may becombined with the last full image of the virtual machine that wascaptured before the forward incremental was captured and any otherforward incremental files that were captured subsequent to the last fullimage and prior to the forward incremental file). A reverse incrementalfile may include a set of data representing changes from a laterpoint-in-time snapshot of a virtual machine. To generate a snapshot ofthe virtual machine corresponding with a reverse incremental file, thereverse incremental file may be combined with a later point-in-timesnapshot of the virtual machine (e.g., the reverse incremental file maybe combined with the most recent snapshot of the virtual machine and anyother reverse incremental files that were captured prior to the mostrecent snapshot and subsequent to the reverse incremental file).

The storage appliance 1170 may provide a user interface (e.g., aweb-based interface or a graphical user interface) that displays virtualmachine backup information such as identifications of the virtualmachines protected and the historical versions or time machine views foreach of the virtual machines protected. A time machine view of a virtualmachine may include snapshots of the virtual machine over a plurality ofpoints in time. Each snapshot may comprise the state of the virtualmachine at a particular point-in-time. Each snapshot may correspond witha different version of the virtual machine (e.g., Version 1 of a virtualmachine may correspond with the state of the virtual machine at a firstpoint-in-time and Version 2 of the virtual machine may correspond withthe state of the virtual machine at a second point-in-time subsequent tothe first point-in-time).

The user interface may enable an end user of the storage appliance 1170(e.g., a system administrator or a virtualization administrator) toselect a particular version of a virtual machine to be restored ormounted. When a particular version of a virtual machine has beenmounted, the particular version may be accessed by a client (e.g., avirtual machine, a physical machine, or a computing device) as if theparticular version was local to the client. A mounted version of avirtual machine may correspond with a mount point directory (e.g.,/snapshots/VM5Nersion23). In one example, the storage appliance 1170 mayrun a NFS server and make the particular version (or a copy of theparticular version) of the virtual machine accessible for reading and/orwriting. The end user of the storage appliance 1170 may then select theparticular version to be mounted and run an application (e.g., a dataanalytics application) using the mounted version of the virtual machine.In another example, the particular version may be mounted as an iSCSItarget.

According to an embodiment, the storage appliance 1140 may be embodiedas the source node 114. In this embodiment, multiple storage appliances1140 may be clustered together to form a clustered database. Forexample, an Oracle host with a RAC cluster may be embodied in multiplestorage appliances 1140. According to an embodiment, the storageappliance 1140 may be embodied as the source node 114. In thisembodiment, multiple storage appliances 1140 may be clustered togetherto form a clustered database. For example, an Oracle host with a RACcluster may be embodied in multiple storage appliances 1140. Accordingto an embodiment, the storage appliance 1170 may be embodied as thebackup node 124. In this embodiment, multiple storage appliances 1170may be clustered together to form a clustered database, as previouslydescribed.

FIG. 7B depicts one embodiment of server 1160 in FIG. 7A. The server1160 may comprise one server out of a plurality of servers that arenetworked together within a data center (e.g., data center 1150). In oneexample, the plurality of servers may be positioned within one or moreserver racks within the data center. As depicted, the server 1160includes hardware-level components and software-level components. Thehardware-level components include one or more processors 1182, one ormore memory 1184, and one or more disks 1185. The software-levelcomponents include a hypervisor 1186, a virtualized infrastructuremanager 1199, and one or more virtual machines, such as virtual machine1198. The hypervisor 1186 may comprise a native hypervisor or a hostedhypervisor. The hypervisor 1186 may provide a virtual operating platformfor running one or more virtual machines, such as virtual machine 1198.Virtual machine 1198 includes a plurality of virtual hardware devicesincluding a virtual processor 1192, a virtual memory 1194, and a virtualdisk 1195. The virtual disk 1195 may comprise a file stored within theone or more disks 1185. In one example, a virtual machine 1198 mayinclude a plurality of virtual disks, with each virtual disk of theplurality of virtual disks associated with a different file stored onthe one or more disks 1185. Virtual machine 1198 may include a guestoperating system 1196 that runs one or more applications, such asapplication 1197.

The virtualized infrastructure manager 1199, which may correspond withthe virtualization manager 1169 in FIG. 7A, may run on a virtual machineor natively on the server 1160. The virtualized infrastructure manager1199 may provide a centralized platform for managing a virtualizedinfrastructure that includes a plurality of virtual machines. Thevirtualized infrastructure manager 1199 may manage the provisioning ofvirtual machines running within the virtualized infrastructure andprovide an interface to computing devices interacting with thevirtualized infrastructure. The virtualized infrastructure manager 1199may perform various virtualized infrastructure-related tasks, such ascloning virtual machines, creating new virtual machines, monitoring thestate of virtual machines, and facilitating backups of virtual machines.

In one embodiment, the server 1160 may use the virtualizedinfrastructure manager 1199 to facilitate backups for a plurality ofvirtual machines (e.g., eight different virtual machines) running on theserver 1160. Each virtual machine running on the server 1160 may run itsown guest operating system and its own set of applications. Each virtualmachine running on the server 1160 may store its own set of files usingone or more virtual disks associated with the virtual machine (e.g.,each virtual machine may include two virtual disks that are used forstoring data associated with the virtual machine).

In one embodiment, a data management application running on a storageappliance, such as storage appliance 1140 in FIG. 7A or storageappliance 1170 in FIG. 7A, may request a snapshot of a virtual machinerunning on the server 1160. The snapshot of the virtual machine may bestored as one or more files, with each file associated with a virtualdisk of the virtual machine. A snapshot of a virtual machine maycorrespond with a state of the virtual machine at a particularpoint-in-time. The particular point-in-time may be associated with atime stamp. In one example, a first snapshot of a virtual machine maycorrespond with a first state of the virtual machine (including thestate of applications and files stored on the virtual machine) at afirst point-in-time and a second snapshot of the virtual machine maycorrespond with a second state of the virtual machine at a secondpoint-in-time subsequent to the first point-in-time.

In response to a request for a snapshot of a virtual machine at aparticular point-in-time, the virtualized infrastructure manager 1199may set the virtual machine into a frozen state or store a copy of thevirtual machine at the particular point-in-time. The virtualizedinfrastructure manager 1199 may then transfer data associated with thevirtual machine (e.g., an image of the virtual machine or a portion ofthe image of the virtual machine) to the storage appliance. The dataassociated with the virtual machine may include a set of files includinga virtual disk file storing contents of a virtual disk of the virtualmachine at the particular point-in-time and a virtual machineconfiguration file storing configuration settings for the virtualmachine at the particular point-in-time. The contents of the virtualdisk file may include the operating system used by the virtual machine,local applications stored on the virtual disk, and user files (e.g.,images and word processing documents). In some cases, the virtualizedinfrastructure manager 1199 may transfer a full image of the virtualmachine to the storage appliance or a plurality of data blockscorresponding with the full image (e.g., to enable a full image-levelbackup of the virtual machine to be stored on the storage appliance). Inother cases, the virtualized infrastructure manager 1199 may transfer aportion of an image of the virtual machine associated with data that haschanged since an earlier point-in-time prior to the particularpoint-in-time or since a last snapshot of the virtual machine was taken.In one example, the virtualized infrastructure manager 1199 may transferonly data associated with virtual blocks stored on a virtual disk of thevirtual machine that have changed since the last snapshot of the virtualmachine was taken. In one embodiment, the data management applicationmay specify a first point-in-time and a second point-in-time and thevirtualized infrastructure manager 1199 may output one or more virtualdata blocks associated with the virtual machine that have been modifiedbetween the first point-in-time and the second point-in-time.

In some embodiments, the server 1160 or the hypervisor 1186 maycommunicate with a storage appliance, such as storage appliance 1140 inFIG. 7A or storage appliance 1170 in FIG. 7A, using a distributed filesystem protocol such as NFS Version 3. The distributed file systemprotocol may allow the server 1160 or the hypervisor 1186 to access,read, write, or modify files stored on the storage appliance 1140/1170as if the files were locally stored on the server 1160. The distributedfile system protocol may allow the server 1160 or the hypervisor 1186 tomount a directory or a portion of a file system located within thestorage appliance 1140/1170.

FIG. 7C depicts one embodiment of storage appliance 1170 (e.g., serverstorage platform) in FIG. 7A. The storage appliance 1170 may include aplurality of physical machines that may be grouped together andpresented as a single computing system. Each physical machine of theplurality of physical machines may comprise a node in a cluster (e.g., afailover cluster). In one example, the storage appliance 1170 may bepositioned within a server rack within a data center. As depicted, thestorage appliance 1170 includes hardware-level components andsoftware-level components. The hardware-level components include one ormore physical machines, such as physical machine 1120 and physicalmachine 1130. The physical machine 1120 includes a network interface1121, processor 1122, memory 1123, and disk 1124 all in communicationwith each other. Processor 1122 allows physical machine 1120 to executecomputer-readable instructions stored in memory 1123 to performprocesses described herein. Disk 1124 may include a HDD and/or a SDD.The physical machine 1130 includes a network interface 1131, processor1132, memory 1133, and disk 1134 all in communication with each other.Processor 1132 allows physical machine 1130 to execute computer-readableinstructions stored in memory 1133 to perform processes describedherein. Disk 1134 may include a HDD and/or a SSD. In some cases, disk1134 may include a flash-based SSD or a hybrid HDD/SSD drive. In oneembodiment, the storage appliance 1170 may include a plurality ofphysical machines arranged in a cluster (e.g., eight machines in acluster). Each of the plurality of physical machines may include aplurality of multi-core CPUs, 128 GB of RAM, a 500 GB SSD, four 4 TBHDDs, and a network interface controller.

In some embodiments, the plurality of physical machines may be used toimplement a cluster-based network file server. The cluster-based networkfile server may neither require nor use a front-end load balancer. Oneissue with using a front-end load balancer to host the IP address forthe cluster-based network file server and to forward requests to thenodes of the cluster-based network file server is that the front-endload balancer comprises a single point of failure for the cluster-basednetwork file server. In some cases, the file system protocol used by aserver, such as server 1160 in FIG. 7A, or a hypervisor, such ashypervisor 1186 in FIG. 7B, to communicate with the storage appliance1170 may not provide a failover mechanism (e.g., NFS Version 3). In thecase that no failover mechanism is provided on the client side, thehypervisor may not be able to connect to a new node within a cluster inthe event that the node connected to the hypervisor fails.

In some embodiments, each node in a cluster may be connected to eachother via a network and may be associated with one or more IP addresses(e.g., two different IP addresses may be assigned to each node). In oneexample, each node in the cluster may be assigned a permanent IP addressand a floating IP address and may be accessed using either the permanentIP address or the floating IP address. In this case, a hypervisor, suchas hypervisor 1186 in FIG. 7B, may be configured with a first floatingIP address associated with a first node in the cluster. The hypervisormay connect to the cluster using the first floating IP address. In oneexample, the hypervisor may communicate with the cluster using the NFSVersion 3 protocol.

Each node in the cluster may run a Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol(VRRP) daemon. A daemon may comprise a background process. Each VRRPdaemon may include a list of all floating IP addresses available withinthe cluster. In the event that the first node associated with the firstfloating IP address fails, one of the VRRP daemons may automaticallyassume or pick up the first floating IP address if no other VRRP daemonhas already assumed the first floating IP address. Therefore, if thefirst node in the cluster fails or otherwise goes down, then one of theremaining VRRP daemons running on the other nodes in the cluster mayassume the first floating IP address that is used by the hypervisor forcommunicating with the cluster.

In order to determine which of the other nodes in the cluster willassume the first floating IP address, a VRRP priority may beestablished. In one example, given a number (N) of nodes in a clusterfrom node(0) to node(N−1), for a floating IP address (i), the VRRPpriority of nodeG) may be (G-i) modulo N. In another example, given anumber (N) of nodes in a cluster from node(0) to node(N−1), for afloating IP address (i), the VRRP priority of nodeG) may be (i-j) moduloN. In these cases, nodeG) will assume floating IP address (i) only ifits VRRP priority is higher than that of any other node in the clusterthat is alive and announcing itself on the network. Thus, if a nodefails, there may be a clear priority ordering for determining whichother node in the cluster will take over the failed node's floating IPaddress.

In some cases, a cluster may include a plurality of nodes and each nodeof the plurality of nodes may be assigned a different floating IPaddress. In this case, a first hypervisor may be configured with a firstfloating IP address associated with a first node in the cluster, asecond hypervisor may be configured with a second floating IP addressassociated with a second node in the cluster, and a third hypervisor maybe configured with a third floating IP address associated with a thirdnode in the cluster.

As depicted in FIG. 7C, the software-level components of the storageappliance 1170 may include data management system 1102, a virtualizationinterface 1104, a distributed job scheduler 1108, a distributed metadatastore 1110, a distributed file system 1112, and one or more virtualmachine search indexes, such as virtual machine search index 1106. Inone embodiment, the software-level components of the storage appliance1170 may be run using a dedicated hardware-based appliance. In anotherembodiment, the software-level components of the storage appliance 1170may be run from the cloud (e.g., the software-level components may beinstalled on a cloud service provider).

In some cases, the data storage across a plurality of nodes in a cluster(e.g., the data storage available from the one or more physicalmachines) may be aggregated and made available over a single file systemnamespace (e.g., /snap-50 shots/). A directory for each virtual machineprotected using the storage appliance 1170 may be created (e.g., thedirectory for Virtual Machine A may be /snapshots/VM_A). Snapshots andother data associated with a virtual machine may reside within thedirectory for the virtual machine. In one example, snapshots of avirtual machine may be stored in subdirectories of the directory (e.g.,a first snapshot of Virtual Machine A may reside in /snapshots/VM_A/s1/and a second snapshot of Virtual Machine A may reside in/snapshots/VM_A/s2/).

The distributed file system 1112 may present itself as a single filesystem, in which, as new physical machines or nodes are added to thestorage appliance 1170, the cluster may automatically discover theadditional nodes and automatically increase the available capacity ofthe file system for storing files and other data. Each file stored inthe distributed file system 1112 may be partitioned into one or morechunks or shards. Each of the one or more chunks may be stored withinthe distributed file system 1112 as a separate file. The files storedwithin the distributed file system 1112 may be replicated or mirroredover a plurality of physical machines, thereby creating a load-balancedand fault-tolerant distributed file system. In one example, storageappliance 1170 may include ten physical machines arranged as a failovercluster and a first file corresponding with a snapshot of a virtualmachine (e.g., /snapshots/VM_A/s1/s1.full) may be replicated and storedon three of the ten machines.

The distributed metadata store 1110 may include a distributed databasemanagement system that provides high availability without a single pointof failure. In one embodiment, the distributed metadata store 1110 maycomprise a database, such as a distributed document-oriented database.The distributed metadata store 1110 may be used as a distributed keyvalue storage system. In one example, the distributed metadata store1110 may comprise a distributed NoSQL key value store database. In somecases, the distributed metadata store 1110 may include a partitioned rowstore, in which rows are organized into tables or other collections ofrelated data held within a structured format within the key value storedatabase. A table (or a set of tables) may be used to store metadatainformation associated with one or more files stored within thedistributed file system 1112. The metadata information may include thename of a file, a size of the file, file permissions associated with thefile, when the file was last modified, and file mapping informationassociated with an identification of the location of the file storedwithin a cluster of physical machines. In one embodiment, a new filecorresponding with a snapshot of a virtual machine may be stored withinthe distributed file system 1112 and metadata associated with the newfile may be stored within the distributed metadata store 1110. Thedistributed metadata store 1110 may also be used to store a backupschedule for the virtual machine and a list of snapshots for the virtualmachine that are stored using the storage appliance 1170.

In some cases, the distributed metadata store 1110 may be used to manageone or more versions of a virtual machine. Each version of the virtualmachine may correspond with a full image snapshot of the virtual machinestored within the distributed file system 1112 or an incrementalsnapshot of the virtual machine (e.g., a forward incremental or reverseincremental) stored within the distributed file system 1112. In oneembodiment, the one or more versions of the virtual machine maycorrespond with a plurality of files. The plurality of files may includea single full image snapshot of the virtual machine and one or moreincrementals derived from the single full image snapshot. The singlefull image snapshot of the virtual machine may be stored using a firststorage device of a first type (e.g., a HDD) and the one or moreincrementals derived from the single full image snapshot may be storedusing a second storage device of a second type (e.g., an SSD). In thiscase, only a single full image needs to be stored and each version ofthe virtual machine may be generated from the single full image or thesingle full image combined with a subset of the one or moreincrementals. Furthermore, each version of the virtual machine may begenerated by performing a sequential read from the first storage device(e.g., reading a single file from a HDD) to acquire the full image and,in parallel, performing one or more reads from the second storage device(e.g., performing fast random reads from an SSD) to acquire the one ormore incrementals.

The distributed job scheduler 1108 may be used for scheduling backupjobs that acquire and store virtual machine snapshots for one or morevirtual machines over time. The distributed job scheduler 1108 mayfollow a backup schedule to back up an entire image of a virtual machineat a particular point-in-time or one or more virtual disks associatedwith the virtual machine at the particular point-in-time. In oneexample, the backup schedule may specify that the virtual machine bebacked up at a snapshot capture frequency, such as every two hours orevery 24 hours. Each backup job may be associated with one or more tasksto be performed in a sequence. Each of the one or more tasks associatedwith a job may be run on a particular node within a cluster. In somecases, the distributed job scheduler 1108 may schedule a specific job tobe run on a particular node based on data stored on the particular node.For example, the distributed job scheduler 1108 may schedule a virtualmachine snapshot job to be run on a node in a cluster that is used tostore snapshots of the virtual machine in order to reduce networkcongestion.

The distributed job scheduler 1108 may comprise a distributedfault-tolerant job scheduler, in which jobs affected by node failuresare recovered and rescheduled to be run on available nodes. In oneembodiment, the distributed job scheduler 1108 may be fullydecentralized and implemented without the existence of a master node.The distributed job scheduler 1108 may run job scheduling processes oneach node in a cluster or on a plurality of nodes in the cluster. In oneexample, the distributed job scheduler 1108 may run a first set of jobscheduling processes on a first node in the cluster, a second set of jobscheduling processes on a second node in the cluster, and a third set ofjob scheduling processes on a third node in the cluster. The first setof job scheduling processes, the second set of job scheduling processes,and the third set of job scheduling processes may store informationregarding jobs, schedules, and the states of jobs using a metadatastore, such as distributed metadata store 1110. In the event that thefirst node running the first set of job scheduling processes fails(e.g., due to a network failure or a physical machine failure), thestates of the jobs managed by the first set of job scheduling processesmay fail to be updated within a threshold period of time (e.g., a jobmay fail to be completed within 30 seconds or within minutes from beingstarted). In response to detecting jobs that have failed to be updatedwithin the threshold period of time, the distributed job scheduler 1108may undo and restart the failed jobs on available nodes within thecluster.

The job scheduling processes running on at least a plurality of nodes ina cluster (e.g., on each available node in the cluster) may manage thescheduling and execution of a plurality of jobs. The job schedulingprocesses may include run processes for running jobs, cleanup processesfor cleaning up failed tasks, and rollback processes for rolling-back orundoing any actions or tasks performed by failed jobs. In oneembodiment, the job scheduling processes may detect that a particulartask for a particular job has failed and, in response, may perform acleanup process to clean up or remove the effects of the particular taskand then perform a rollback process that processes one or more completedtasks for the particular job in reverse order to undo the effects of theone or more completed tasks. Once the particular job with the failedtask has been undone, the job scheduling processes may restart theparticular job on an available node in the cluster.

The distributed job scheduler 1108 may manage a job in which a series oftasks associated with the job are to be performed atomically (i.e.,partial execution of the series of tasks is not permitted). If theseries of tasks cannot be completely executed or there is any failurethat occurs to one of the series of tasks during execution (e.g., a harddisk associated with a physical machine fails or a network connection tothe physical machine fails), then the state of a data management systemmay be returned to a state as if none of the series of tasks were everperformed. The series of tasks may correspond with an ordering of tasksfor the series of tasks and the distributed job scheduler 1108 mayensure that each task of the series of tasks is executed based on theordering of tasks. Tasks that do not have dependencies with each othermay be executed in parallel.

In some cases, the distributed job scheduler 1108 may schedule each taskof a series of tasks to be performed on a specific node in a cluster. Inother cases, the distributed job scheduler 1108 may schedule a firsttask of the series of tasks to be performed on a first node in a clusterand a second task of the series of tasks to be performed on a secondnode in the cluster. In these cases, the first task may have to operateon a first set of data (e.g., a first file stored in a file system)stored on the first node and the second task may have to operate on asecond set of data (e.g., metadata related to the first file that isstored in a database) stored on the second node. In some embodiments,one or more tasks associated with a job may have an affinity to aspecific node in a cluster.

In one example, if the one or more tasks require access to a databasethat has been replicated on three nodes in a cluster, then the one ormore tasks may be executed on one of the three nodes. In anotherexample, if the one or more tasks require access to multiple chunks ofdata associated with a virtual disk that has been replicated over fournodes in a cluster, then the one or more tasks may be executed on one ofthe four nodes. Thus, the distributed job scheduler 1108 may assign oneor more tasks associated with a job to be executed on a particular nodein a cluster based on the location of data required to be accessed bythe one or more tasks.

In one embodiment, the distributed job scheduler 1108 may manage a firstjob associated with capturing and storing a snapshot of a virtualmachine periodically (e.g., every 30 minutes). The first job may includeone or more tasks, such as communicating with a virtualizedinfrastructure manager, such as the virtualized infrastructure manager1199 in FIG. 7B, to create a frozen copy of the virtual machine and totransfer one or more chunks (or one or more files) associated with thefrozen copy to a storage appliance, such as storage appliance 1170 inFIG. 7A. The one or more tasks may also include generating metadata forthe one or more chunks, storing the metadata using the distributedmetadata store 1110, storing the one or more chunks within thedistributed file system 1112, and communicating with the virtualizedinfrastructure manager that the frozen copy of the virtual machine maybe unfrozen or released from a frozen state. The metadata for a firstchunk of the one or more chunks may include information specifying aversion of the virtual machine associated with the frozen copy, a timeassociated with the version (e.g., the snapshot of the virtual machinewas taken at 5:30 p.m. on Jun. 29, 2018), and a file path to where thefirst chunk is stored within the distributed file system 1112 (e.g., thefirst chunk is located at /snapshotsNM_B/s1/s1.chunk1). The one or moretasks may also include deduplication, compression (e.g., using alossless data compression algorithm such as LZ4 or LZ77), decompression,encryption (e.g., using a symmetric key algorithm such as Triple DES orAES-256), and decryption-related tasks.

According to an embodiment, the distributed job scheduler 1108 mayschedule one or more jobs that perform operations described inassociation with FIG. 3A, FIG. 3B, and FIG. 6C. For example, the one ormore jobs may be embodied as the job module 204.

The virtualization interface 1104 may provide an interface forcommunicating with a virtualized infrastructure manager managing avirtualization infrastructure, such as virtualized infrastructuremanager 1199 in FIG. 7B, and requesting data associated with virtualmachine snapshots from the virtualization infrastructure. Thevirtualization interface 1104 may communicate with the virtualizedinfrastructure manager using an API for accessing the virtualizedinfrastructure manager (e.g., to communicate a request for a snapshot ofa virtual machine). In this case, storage appliance 1170 may request andreceive data from a virtualized infrastructure without requiring agentsoftware to be installed or running on virtual machines within thevirtualized infrastructure. The virtualization interface 1104 mayrequest data associated with virtual blocks stored on a virtual disk ofthe virtual machine that have changed since a last snapshot of thevirtual machine was taken or since a specified prior point-in-time.Therefore, in some cases, if a snapshot of a virtual machine is thefirst snapshot taken of the virtual machine, then a full image of thevirtual machine may be transferred to the storage appliance. However, ifthe snapshot of the virtual machine is not the first snapshot taken ofthe virtual machine, then only the data blocks of the virtual machinethat have changed since a prior snapshot was taken may be transferred tothe storage appliance.

The virtual machine search index 1106 may include a list of files thathave been stored using a virtual machine and a version history for eachof the files in the list. Each version of a file may be mapped to theearliest point-in-time snapshot of the virtual machine that includes theversion of the file or to a snapshot of the virtual machine thatincludes the version of the file (e.g., the latest point-in-timesnapshot of the virtual machine that includes the version of the file).In one example, the virtual machine search index 1106 may be used toidentify a version of the virtual machine that includes a particularversion of a file (e.g., a particular version of a database, aspreadsheet, or a word processing document). In some cases, each of thevirtual machines that are backed up or protected using storage appliance1170 may have a corresponding virtual machine search index.

In one embodiment, as each snapshot of a virtual machine is ingested,each virtual disk associated with the virtual machine is parsed in orderto identify a file system type associated with the virtual disk and toextract metadata (e.g., file system metadata) for each file stored onthe virtual disk. The metadata may include information for locating andretrieving each file from the virtual disk. The metadata may alsoinclude a name of a file, the size of the file, the last time at whichthe file was modified, and a content checksum for the file. Each filethat has been added, deleted, or modified since a previous snapshot wascaptured may be determined using the metadata (e.g., by comparing thetime at which a file was last modified with a time associated with theprevious snapshot). Thus, for every file that has existed within any ofthe snapshots of the virtual machine, a virtual machine search index maybe used to identify when the file was first created (e.g., correspondingwith a first version of the file) and at what times the file wasmodified (e.g., corresponding with subsequent versions of the file).Each version of the file may be mapped to a particular version of thevirtual machine that stores that version of the file.

In some cases, if a virtual machine includes a plurality of virtualdisks, then a virtual machine search index may be generated for eachvirtual disk of the plurality of virtual disks. For example, a firstvirtual machine search index may catalog, and map files located on afirst virtual disk of the plurality of virtual disks and a secondvirtual machine search index may catalog and map files located on asecond virtual disk of the plurality of virtual disks. In this case, aglobal file catalog or a global virtual machine search index for thevirtual machine may include the first virtual machine search index andthe second virtual machine search index. A global file catalog may bestored for each virtual machine backed up by a storage appliance withina file system, such as distributed file system 1112 in FIG. 7C. The datamanagement system 1102 may comprise an application running on thestorage appliance that manages and stores one or more snapshots of avirtual machine. In one example, the data management system 1102 maycomprise a highest-level layer in an integrated software stack runningon the storage appliance. The integrated software stack may include thedata management system 1102, the virtualization interface 1104, thedistributed job scheduler 1108, the distributed metadata store 1110, andthe distributed file system 1112.

In some cases, the integrated software stack may run on other computingdevices, such as a server or computing device 1154 in FIG. 7A. The datamanagement system 1102 may use the virtualization interface 1104, thedistributed job scheduler 1108, the distributed metadata store 1110, andthe distributed file system 1112 to manage and store one or moresnapshots of a virtual machine. Each snapshot of the virtual machine maycorrespond with a point-in-time version of the virtual machine. The datamanagement system 1102 may generate and manage a list of versions forthe virtual machine. Each version of the virtual machine may map to orreference one or more chunks and/or one or more files stored within thedistributed file system 1112. Combined together, the one or more chunksand/or the one or more files stored within the distributed file system1112 may comprise a full image of the version of the virtual machine.

The modules, methods, engines, applications, and so forth described inconjunction with FIGS. 1A-8 are implemented in some embodiments in thecontext of multiple machines and associated software architectures. Thesections below describe representative software architecture(s) andmachine (e.g., hardware) architecture(s) that are suitable for use withthe disclosed embodiment

Software architectures are used in conjunction with hardwarearchitectures to create devices and machines tailored to particularpurposes. For example, a particular hardware architecture coupled with aparticular software architecture will create a mobile device, such as amobile phone, tablet device, or so forth. A slightly different hardwareand software architecture may yield a smart device for use in the“Internet of Things,” while yet another combination produces a servercomputer for use within a cloud computing architecture. Not allcombinations of such software and hardware architectures are presentedhere, as those of skill in the art can readily understand how toimplement the disclosure in different contexts from the disclosurecontained herein.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram 2000 illustrating a representative softwarearchitecture 2002, which may be used in conjunction with varioushardware architectures herein described. FIG. 8 is merely a non-limitingexample of a software architecture 2002, and it will be appreciated thatmany other architectures may be implemented to facilitate thefunctionality described herein. The software architecture 2002 may beexecuting on hardware such as a machine 2100 of FIG. 9 that includes,among other things, processors 2110, memory/storage 2130, and I/Ocomponents 2150. Returning to FIG. 8, a representative hardware layer2004 is illustrated and can represent, for example, the machine 2100 ofFIG. 9. The representative hardware layer 2004 comprises one or moreprocessing units 2006 having associated executable instructions 2008.The executable instructions 2008 represent the executable instructionsof the software architecture 2002, including implementation of themethods, engines, modules, and so forth of FIGS. 1A-7C. The hardwarelayer 2004 also includes memory and/or storage modules 2010, which alsohave the executable instructions 2008. The hardware layer 2004 may alsocomprise other hardware 2012, which represents any other hardware of thehardware layer 2004, such as the other hardware 2012 illustrated as partof the machine 2100.

In the example architecture of FIG. 8, the software architecture 2002may be conceptualized as a stack of layers where each layer providesparticular functionality. For example, the software architecture 2002may include layers such as an operating system 2014, libraries 2016,frameworks/middleware 2018, applications 2020, and a presentation layer2044. Operationally, the applications 2020 and/or other componentswithin the layers may invoke API calls 2024 through the software stackand receive a response, returned values, and so forth, illustrated asmessages 2026, in response to the API calls 2024. The layers illustratedare representative in nature, and not all software architectures haveall layers. For example, some mobile or special purpose operatingsystems 2014 may not provide a frameworks/middleware 2018 layer, whileothers may provide such a layer. Other software architectures mayinclude additional or different layers.

The operating system 2014 may manage hardware resources and providecommon services. The operating system 2014 may include, for example, akernel 2028, services 2030, and drivers 2032. The kernel 2028 may act asan abstraction layer between the hardware and the other software layers.For example, the kernel 2028 may be responsible for memory management,processor management (e.g., scheduling), component management,networking, security settings, and so on. The services 2030 may provideother common services for the other software layers.

The drivers 2032 may be responsible for controlling or interfacing withthe underlying hardware. For instance, the drivers 2032 may includedisplay drivers, camera drivers, Bluetooth® drivers, flash memorydrivers, serial communication drivers (e.g., Universal Serial Bus (USB)drivers), Wi-Fi® drivers, audio drivers, power management drivers, andso forth depending on the hardware configuration.

The libraries 2016 may provide a common infrastructure that may beutilized by the applications 2020 and/or other components and/or layers.The libraries 2016 typically provide functionality that allows othersoftware modules to perform tasks in an easier fashion than to interfacedirectly with the underlying operating system 2014 functionality (e.g.,kernel 2028, services 2030, and/or drivers 2032). The libraries 2016 mayinclude system libraries 2034 (e.g., C standard library) that mayprovide functions such as memory allocation functions, stringmanipulation functions, mathematic functions, and the like. In addition,the libraries 2016 may include API libraries 2036 such as medialibraries (e.g., libraries to support presentation and manipulation ofvarious media formats such as moving picture experts group (MPEG) 4,H.264, MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer (MP3), AAC, AMR, joint photographyexperts group (JPG), or portable network graphics (PNG)), graphicslibraries (e.g., an Open Graphics Library (OpenGL) framework that may beused to render 2D and 3D graphic content on a display), databaselibraries (e.g., Structured Query Language (SQL), SQLite that mayprovide various relational database functions), web libraries (e.g.,WebKit that may provide web browsing functionality), and the like. Thelibraries 2016 may also include a wide variety of other libraries 2038to provide many other APIs to the applications 2020 and other softwarecomponents/modules.

The frameworks 2018 (also sometimes referred to as middleware) mayprovide a higher-level common infrastructure that may be utilized by theapplications 2020 and/or other software components/modules. For example,the frameworks/middleware 2018 may provide various graphical userinterface functions, high-level resource management, high-level locationservices, and so forth. The frameworks/middleware 2018 may provide abroad spectrum of other APIs that may be utilized by the applications2020 and/or other software components/modules, some of which may bespecific to a particular operating system 2014 or platform.

The applications 2020 include built-in applications 2040 and/orthird-party applications 2042. Examples of representative built-inapplications 2040 may include, but are not limited to, a contactsapplication, a browser application, a book reader application, alocation application, a media application, a messaging application,and/or a game application. Third-party applications 2042 may include anyof the built-in applications as well as a broad assortment of otherapplications 2020. In a specific example, the third-party application2042 (e.g., an application developed using the Android™ or iOS™ softwaredevelopment kit (SDK) by an entity other than the vendor of theparticular platform) may be mobile software running on a mobileoperating system 2014 such as iOS™ Android™, Windows® Phone, or othermobile operating systems 2014. In this example, the third-partyapplication 2042 may invoke the API calls 2024 provided by the mobileoperating system such as the operating system 2014 to facilitatefunctionality described herein.

The applications 2020 may utilize built-in operating system functions(e.g., kernel 2028, services 2030, and/or drivers 2032), libraries(e.g., system libraries 2034, API libraries 2036, and other libraries2038), and frameworks/middleware 2018 to create user interfaces tointeract with users of the system. Alternatively, or additionally, insome systems, interactions with a user may occur through a presentationlayer, such as the presentation layer 2044. In these systems, theapplication/module “logic” can be separated from the aspects of theapplication/module that interact with a user.

Some software architectures 2002 utilize virtual machines. In theexample of FIG. 8, this is illustrated by a virtual machine 2048. Thevirtual machine 2048 creates a software environment whereapplications/modules can execute as if they were executing on a hardwaremachine (such as the machine 2100 of FIG. 9, for example). The virtualmachine 2048 is hosted by a host operating system (e.g., operatingsystem 2014 in FIG. 8) and typically, although not always, has a virtualmachine monitor 2046, which manages the operation of the virtual machine2048 as well as the interface with the host operating system (e.g.,operating system 2014). A software architecture executes within thevirtual machine 2048, such as an operating system 2050, libraries 2052,frameworks/middleware 2054, applications 2056, and/or a presentationlayer 2058. These layers of software architecture executing within thevirtual machine 2048 can be the same as corresponding layers previouslydescribed or may be different.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating components of a machine 2100,according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from amachine-storage medium and perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein. Specifically, FIG. 9 shows a diagrammaticrepresentation of the machine 2100 in the example form of a computersystem, within which instructions 2116 (e.g., software, a program, anapplication, an applet, an app, or other executable code) for causingthe machine 2100 to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein may be executed. For example, the instructions 2116 maycause the machine 2100 to execute the flow diagrams of FIG. 3A, FIG. 3B,FIG. 5B, and FIG. 6C. Additionally, or alternatively, the instructions2116 may implement the modules, engines, applications, and so forth, asdescribed in this document. The instructions 2116 transform the general,non-programmed machine 2100 into a particular machine 2100 programmed tocarry out the described and illustrated functions in the mannerdescribed. In alternative embodiments, the machine 2100 operates as astandalone device or may be coupled (e.g., networked) to other machines2100. In a networked deployment, the machine 2100 may operate in thecapacity of a server machine or a client machine in a server-clientnetwork environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (ordistributed) network environment. The machine 2100 may comprise, but notbe limited to, a server computer, a client computer, a personal computer(PC), a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a netbook, a set-top box(STB), a personal digital assistant (PDA), an entertainment mediasystem, a cellular telephone, a smart phone, a mobile device, a wearabledevice (e.g., a smart watch), a smart home device (e.g., a smartappliance), other smart devices, a web appliance, a network router, anetwork switch, a network bridge, or any machine 2100 capable ofexecuting the instructions 2116, sequentially or otherwise, that specifyactions to be taken by the machine 2100. Further, while only a singlemachine 2100 is illustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken toinclude a collection of machines 2100 that individually or jointlyexecute the instructions 2116 to perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein.

The machine 2100 may include processors 2110, memory/storage 2130, andI/O components 2150, which may be configured to communicate with eachother such as via a bus 2102. In an example embodiment, the processors2110 (e.g., a CPU, a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor,a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a GPU, a digitalsignal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit(ASIC), a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor,or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, aprocessor 2112 and a processor 2114 that may execute the instructions2116. The term “processor” is intended to include multi-core processors2110 that may comprise two or more independent processors 2110(sometimes referred to as “cores”) that may execute the instructions2116 contemporaneously. Although FIG. 9 shows multiple processors 2110,the machine 2100 may include a single processor 2110 with a single core,a single processor 2110 with multiple cores (e.g., a multi-coreprocessor), multiple processors 2110 with a single core, multipleprocessors 2110 with multiples cores, or any combination thereof.

The memory/storage 2130 may include a memory 2132, such as a mainmemory, or other memory storage, and a storage unit 2136, bothaccessible to the processors 2110 such as via the bus 2102. The storageunit 2136 and memory 2132 store the instructions 2116, embodying any oneor more of the methodologies or functions described herein. Theinstructions 2116 may also reside, completely or partially, within thememory 2132, within the storage unit 2136, within at least one of theprocessors 2110 (e.g., within the processor's cache memory), or anysuitable combination thereof, during execution thereof by the machine2100. Accordingly, the memory 2132, the storage unit 2136, and thememory of the processors 2110 are examples of machine-storage media.

As used herein, “machine-storage medium” means a device able to storethe instructions 2116 and data temporarily or permanently and mayinclude, but not be limited to, RAM, ROM, buffer memory, flash memory,optical media, magnetic media, cache memory, other types of storage(e.g., EEPROM), and/or any suitable combination thereof. The term“machine-storage medium” should be taken to include a single medium ormultiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, orassociated caches and servers) able to store the instructions 2116. Theterm “machine-storage medium” shall also be taken to include any medium,or combination of multiple media, that is capable of storinginstructions (e.g., instructions 2116) for execution by a machine (e.g.,machine 2100), such that the instructions 2116, when executed by one ormore processors of the machine (e.g., processors 2110), cause themachine to perform any one or more of the methodologies describedherein. Accordingly, a “machine-storage medium” refers to a singlestorage apparatus or device, as well as “cloud-based” storage systems orstorage networks that include multiple storage apparatus or devices. Theterm “machine-storage medium” excludes signals per se.

The I/O components 2150 may include a wide variety of components toreceive input, provide output, produce output, transmit information,exchange information, capture measurements, and so on. The specific I/Ocomponents 2150 that are included in a particular machine 2100 willdepend on the type of machine. For example, portable machines 2100 suchas mobile phones will likely include a touch input device or other suchinput mechanisms, while a headless server machine will likely notinclude such a touch input device. It will be appreciated that the I/Ocomponents 2150 may include many other components that are not shown inFIG. 9. The I/O components 2150 are grouped according to functionalitymerely for simplifying the following discussion and the grouping is inno way limiting. In various example embodiments, the I/O components 2150may include output components 2152 and input components 2154. The outputcomponents 2152 may include visual components (e.g., a display such as aplasma display panel (PDP), a light emitting diode (LED) display, aliquid crystal display (LCD), a projector, or a cathode ray tube (CRT)),acoustic components (e.g., speakers), haptic components (e.g., avibratory motor, resistance mechanisms), other signal generators, and soforth. The input components 2154 may include alphanumeric inputcomponents (e.g., a keyboard, a touch screen configured to receivealphanumeric input, a photo-optical keyboard, or other alphanumericinput components), point based input components (e.g., a mouse, atouchpad, a trackball, a joystick, a motion sensor, or another pointinginstrument), tactile input components (e.g., a physical button, a touchscreen that provides location and/or force of touches or touch gestures,or other tactile input components), audio input components (e.g., amicrophone), and the like.

In further example embodiments, the I/O components 2150 may includebiometric components 2156, motion components 2158, environmentalcomponents 2160, or position components 2162 among a wide array of othercomponents. For example, the biometric components 2156 may includecomponents to detect expressions (e.g., hand expressions, facialexpressions, vocal expressions, body gestures, or eye tracking), measurebiosignals (e.g., blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature,perspiration, or brain waves), identify a person (e.g., voiceidentification, retinal identification, facial identification,fingerprint identification, or electroencephalogram basedidentification), and the like. The motion components 2158 may includeacceleration sensor components (e.g., accelerometer), gravitation sensorcomponents, rotation sensor components (e.g., gyroscope), and so forth.The environmental components 2160 may include, for example, illuminationsensor components (e.g., photometer), temperature sensor components(e.g., one or more thermometers that detect ambient temperature),humidity sensor components, pressure sensor components (e.g.,barometer), acoustic sensor components (e.g., one or more microphonesthat detect background noise), proximity sensor components (e.g.,infrared sensors that detect nearby objects), gas sensors (e.g., gassensors to detect concentrations of hazardous gases for safety or tomeasure pollutants in the atmosphere), or other components that mayprovide indications, measurements, or signals corresponding to asurrounding physical environment. The position components 2162 mayinclude location sensor components (e.g., a Global Position System (GPS)receiver component), altitude sensor components (e.g., altimeters orbarometers that detect air pressure from which altitude may be derived),orientation sensor components (e.g., magnetometers), and the like.

Communication may be implemented using a wide variety of technologies.

The I/O components 2150 may include communication components 2164operable to couple the machine 2100 to a network 2180 or devices 2170via a coupling 2182 and a coupling 2172 respectively. For example, thecommunication components 2164 may include a network interface componentor other suitable device to interface with the network 2180. In furtherexamples, the communication components 2164 may include wiredcommunication components, wireless communication components, cellularcommunication components, near field communication (NFC) components,Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components,and other communication components to provide communication via othermodalities. The devices 2170 may be another machine 2100 or any of awide variety of peripheral devices (e.g., a peripheral device coupledvia a USB).

Moreover, the communication components 2164 may detect identifiers orinclude components operable to detect identifiers. For example, thecommunication components 2164 may include radio frequency identification(RFID) tag reader components, NFC smart tag detection components,optical reader components (e.g., an optical sensor to detectone-dimensional bar codes such as Universal Product Code (UPC) bar code,multi-dimensional bar codes such as Quick Response (QR) code, Azteccode, Data Matrix, Dataglyph, MaxiCode, PDF417, Ultra Code, UCC RSS-2Dbar code, and other optical codes), or acoustic detection components(e.g., microphones to identify tagged audio signals). In addition, avariety of information may be derived via the communication components2164, such as location via IP geolocation, location via Wi-Fi® signaltriangulation, location via detecting an NFC beacon signal that mayindicate a particular location, and so forth.

In various example embodiments, one or more portions of the network 2180may be an ad hoc network, an intranet, an extranet, a VPN, a LAN, awireless LAN (WLAN), a WAN, a wireless WAN (WWAN), a metropolitan areanetwork (MAN), the Internet, a portion of the Internet, a portion of thepublic switched telephone network (PSTN), a plain old telephone service(POTS) network, a cellular telephone network, a wireless network, aWi-Fi® network, another type of network, or a combination of two or moresuch networks. For example, the network 2180 or a portion of the network2180 may include a wireless or cellular network and the coupling 2182may be a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) connection, a GlobalSystem for Mobile communications (GSM) connection, or another type ofcellular or wireless coupling. In this example, the coupling 2182 mayimplement any of a variety of types of data transfer technology, such asSingle Carrier Radio Transmission Technology (1×RTT), Evolution-DataOptimized (EVDO) technology, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS)technology, Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) technology,third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) including 3G, fourthgeneration wireless (4G) networks, Universal Mobile TelecommunicationsSystem (UMTS), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), WorldwideInteroperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), Long Term Evolution (LTE)standard, others defined by various standard-setting organizations,other long range protocols, or other data transfer technology.

The instructions 2116 may be transmitted or received over the network2180 using a transmission medium via a network interface device (e.g., anetwork interface component included in the communication components2164) and utilizing any one of a number of well-known transfer protocols(e.g., hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP)). Similarly, the instructions2116 may be transmitted or received using a transmission medium via thecoupling 2172 (e.g., a peer-to-peer coupling) to the devices 2170.

The term “signal medium” or “transmission medium” shall be taken toinclude any intangible medium that is capable of storing, encoding, orcarrying the instructions 2116 for execution by the machine 2100, andincludes digital or analog communications signals or other intangiblemedia to facilitate communication of such software.

The terms “machine-readable medium,” “computer-readable medium,” and“device-readable medium” mean the same thing and may be usedinterchangeably in this disclosure. The terms are defined to includeboth machine-storage media and transmission medium. Thus, the termsinclude both storage devices/media and carrier waves/modulated datasignals.

Throughout this specification, plural instances may implementcomponents, operations, or structures described as a single instance.Although individual operations of one or more methods are illustratedand described as separate operations, one or more of the individualoperations may be performed concurrently, and nothing requires that theoperations be performed in the order illustrated. Structures andfunctionality presented as separate components in example configurationsmay be implemented as a combined structure or component. Similarly,structures and functionality presented as a single component may beimplemented as separate components. These and other variations,modifications, additions, and improvements fall within the scope of thesubject matter herein.

Although an overview of the inventive subject matter has been describedwith reference to specific example embodiments, various modificationsand changes may be made to these embodiments without departing from thebroader scope of embodiments of the present disclosure. Such embodimentsof the inventive subject matter may be referred to herein, individuallyor collectively, by the term “invention” merely for convenience andwithout intending to voluntarily limit the scope of this application toany single invention or inventive concept if more than one is, in fact,disclosed.

The embodiments illustrated herein are described in sufficient detail toenable those skilled in the art to practice the teachings disclosed.Other embodiments may be used and derived therefrom, such thatstructural and logical substitutions and changes may be made withoutdeparting from the scope of this disclosure. The Detailed Description,therefore, is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope ofvarious embodiments is defined only by the appended claims, along withthe full range of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

As used herein, the term “or” may be construed in either an inclusive orexclusive sense. Moreover, plural instances may be provided forresources, operations, or structures described herein as a singleinstance. Additionally, boundaries between various resources,operations, modules, engines, and data stores are somewhat arbitrary,and particular operations are illustrated in a context of specificillustrative configurations. Other allocations of functionality areenvisioned and may fall within a scope of various embodiments of thepresent disclosure. In general, structures and functionality presentedas separate resources in the example configurations may be implementedas a combined structure or resource. Similarly, structures andfunctionality presented as a single resource may be implemented asseparate resources. These and other variations, modifications,additions, and improvements fall within a scope of embodiments of thepresent disclosure as represented by the appended claims. Thespecification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: at least one processor andmemory having instructions that, when executed, cause the at least oneprocessor to perform operations comprising: receiving a database from asource host operating in a native database recovery environment, thedatabase being received at a backup host operating in a foreign databaserecovery environment, the foreign database recovery environmentutilizing foreign snapshot files and foreign incremental files forstoring the database; receiving export information at the backup host,the export information including a tablespace identifier that identifiesa tablespace including tablespace metadata information and apoint-in-time that identifies file information for export from thebackup host to the source host, the source host operating in the nativedatabase recovery environment; initiating a job, on the backup host,responsive to receiving the export information, the job executing tocause the at least one processor to perform operations furthercomprising: generating script information based on the exportinformation, the script information including scripts including logicfor execution on the source host to import of the tablespace metadatainformation, at the point-in-time, to the database on the source host;creating one or more directories on the backup host based on the exportinformation; materializing the file information on the backup host, thefile information including native snapshot files and native incrementalfiles; utilizing an auxiliary database, at the backup host, to generatetablespace metadata information based on the file information; andcommunicating the tablespace metadata information and the scriptinformation and the file information, via the directories, and over anetwork, to the source host, to enable the source host to recover thetablespace in the database in the native database recovery environment.2. The system of claim 1, wherein the database includes a wholesaledistribution database and wherein the tablespace includes a shippingtable and wherein the shipping table includes a plurality of rows ofshipping information.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein the utilizingthe auxiliary database includes: opening the auxiliary database;restoring the tablespace in the auxiliary database based on the nativesnapshot files and the tablespace identifier, the auxiliary databaseincluding the tablespace metadata information; recovering the tablespacein the auxiliary database based on the native incremental files and thetablespace identifier, the recovering including application of theincremental changes to the auxiliary database to recover the tablespacein the auxiliary database to the point-in-time that was selected; andexporting the tablespace metadata information from the auxiliarydatabase.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the file informationincludes native snapshot files including the snapshots of an image ofthe database on the source host and native incremental files includingincremental changes to the image of the database on the source host, anda native control file.
 5. The system of claim 4, wherein thematerializing the file information includes: selecting the foreignsnapshot files and the foreign incremental files based on thepoint-in-time; and materializing the file information from the databaseon the backup host, wherein the file information includes the nativesnapshot files, the native incremental files, and the native controlfile.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the communicating the tablespacemetadata information and the script information and the fileinformation, via the directories, to the source host includes utilizinga network file system protocol to communicate the tablespace metadatainformation and the script information, and the file information, viathe directories, to the source host.
 7. The system of claim 1, whereinthe scripts include logic to: mount the directories: recover thetablespace in the database, including: import the tablespace metadatainformation to the database; restore the tablespace in the databasebased on the native snapshot files and the tablespace identifier;recover the tablespace in the database based on the native incrementalfiles and the tablespace identifier, the recovery including applicationof the incremental changes to the database to recover the tablespace tothe point-in-time that was selected; and unmount the directories.
 8. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the database is a standalone database and thebackup host includes a first node including the backup node.
 9. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the backup host comprises a plurality ofnodes that stores a cluster database.
 10. A method comprising: receivinga database from a source host operating in a native database recoveryenvironment, the database being received at a backup host operating in aforeign database recovery environment, the foreign database recoveryenvironment utilizing foreign snapshot files and foreign incrementalfiles for storing the database, the receiving the database beingperformed by at least one processor; receiving export information at thebackup host, the export information including a tablespace identifierthat identifies a tablespace including tablespace metadata informationand a point-in-time that identifies file information for export from thebackup host to the source host, the source host operating in the nativedatabase recovery environment; initiating a job, on the backup host,responsive to receiving the export information, the job executing tocause the at least one processor to perform operations furthercomprising: generating script information based on the exportinformation, the script information including scripts including logicfor execution on the source host to import of the tablespace metadatainformation, at the point-in-time, to the database on the source host;creating one or more directories on the backup host based on the exportinformation; materializing the file information on the backup host, thefile information including native snapshot files and native incrementalfiles; utilizing an auxiliary database, at the backup host, to generatetablespace metadata information based on the file information; andcommunicating the tablespace metadata information and the scriptinformation and the file information, via the directories, and over anetwork, to the source host, to enable the source host to recover thetablespace in the database in the native database recovery environment.11. The method of claim 10, wherein the database includes a wholesaledistribution database and wherein the tablespace includes a shippingtable and wherein the shipping table includes a plurality of rows ofshipping information.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the utilizingthe auxiliary database includes: opening the auxiliary database;restoring the tablespace in the auxiliary database based on the nativesnapshot files and the tablespace identifier, the auxiliary databaseincluding the tablespace metadata information; recovering the tablespacein the auxiliary database based on the native incremental files and thetablespace identifier, the recovering including application of theincremental changes to the auxiliary database to recover the tablespacein the auxiliary database to the point-in-time that was selected; andexporting the tablespace metadata information from the auxiliarydatabase.
 13. The method of claim 10, wherein the file informationincludes native snapshot files including the snapshots of an image ofthe database on the source host and native incremental files includingincremental changes to the image of the database on the source host, anda native control file.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein thematerializing the file information includes: selecting the foreignsnapshot files and the foreign incremental files based on thepoint-in-time; and materializing the file information from the databaseon the backup host, wherein the file information includes the nativesnapshot files, the native incremental files, and the native controlfile.
 15. The method of claim 10, wherein the communicating thetablespace metadata information and the script information and the fileinformation, via the directories, to the source host includes utilizinga network file system protocol to communicate the tablespace metadatainformation and the script information, and the file information, viathe directories, to the source host.
 16. The method of claim 10, whereinthe scripts include logic to: mount the directories; recover thetablespace in the database, including: import the tablespace metadatainformation to the database; restore the tablespace in the databasebased on the native snapshot files and the tablespace identifier;recover the tablespace in the database based on the native incrementalfiles and the tablespace identifier, the recovery including applicationof the incremental changes to the database to recover the tablespace tothe point-in-time that was selected; and unmount the directories. 17.The method of claim 10, wherein the database is a standalone databaseand the backup host includes a first node including the backup node. 18.The method of claim 10, wherein the backup host comprises a plurality ofnodes that stores a cluster database.
 19. A machine-storage medium andstoring a set of instructions that, when executed by a processor, causesa machine to perform operations comprising: receiving a database from asource host operating in a native database recovery environment, thedatabase being received at a backup host operating in a foreign databaserecovery environment, the foreign database recovery environmentutilizing foreign snapshot files and foreign incremental files forstoring the database; receiving export information at the backup host,the export information including a tablespace identifier that identifiesa tablespace including tablespace metadata information and apoint-in-time that identifies file information for export from thebackup host to the source host, the source host operating in the nativedatabase recovery environment; initiating a job, on the backup host,responsive to receiving the export information, the job executing tocause the at least one processor to perform operations furthercomprising: generating script information based on the exportinformation, the script information including scripts including logicfor execution on the source host to import of the tablespace metadatainformation, at the point-in-time, to the database on the source host;creating one or more directories on the backup host based on the exportinformation; materializing the file information on the backup host, thefile information including native snapshot files and native incrementalfiles; utilizing an auxiliary database, at the backup host, to generatetablespace metadata information based on the file information; andcommunicating the tablespace metadata information and the scriptinformation and the file information, via the directories, and over anetwork, to the source host, to enable the source host to recover thetablespace in the database in the native database recovery environment.20. The machine-storage medium of claim 19, wherein the databaseincludes a wholesale distribution database and wherein the tablespaceincludes a shipping table and wherein the shipping table includes aplurality of rows of shipping information.